Rival Survival
by Hunnybear22
Summary: Ash/Gary fic. Professor Oak sends them on an errand to Snowpoint City, but will this trip help rebuild their friendship or break it? **COMPLETED**
1. It Begins

**Rival Survival **- Chapter 1 "And it Begins"

* I do not own Pokemon or the characters*

**This is my first fanfic! There's probably a lot of bad grammar and what not in here too. Hope you all enjoy ^_^**

Note: Set where Ash is travelling with Brock and Misty. Ash decides to head back to Pallet town for a short break while Brock and Misty go to Pewter and Cerulean for their break from travelling.

"Ka…" Pikachu growled as it covered it's ears to block out the sound of Ash's snoring. Luckily for Pikachu it was almost time to wake up. The Electrode alarm clock went off and Ash awoke almost falling out of bed. He struggled out of the tangled blankets and reached to turn the alarm clock off.

"8am…" Ash grumbled. "That's right, I'm supposed to meet Professor Oak today to check to see how my Pokemon are doing." He climbed out of bed and got changed quickly.

"Cha…" Pikachu said letting out a big yawn. "Come on Pikachu, we're supposed to meet Professor Oak at his lab today. I want to catch him before he starts doing his early morning poetry." Pikachu jumped down from bed and they both headed downstairs.

"No shower for me today." Ash said walking down the stairs with a big grin on his face.

"Ash Ketchum! You get back upstairs right now and take your shower or you aren't going anywhere!" *anime facefall*

~After the shower, in the kitchen~

Pikachu sat on the table finishing a shiny red apple as Ash came down the stairs, feeling better than he did 10 minutes ago. "Ash I made you eggs and toast for breakfast. I'm glad to have you back home honey, I wish I was able to stay longer but I've got quite a few errands to run today." Delila said grabbing her purse.

"Okay mom." Replied Ash as he sat down at the table. Delila opened the front door, "Have fun at Professor Oak's today! Oh, I washed your underwear too. Bye honey!"

"Eh…" Ash covered his face with his hand.

~ Road to Oak's ~

Ash hurried down the road to Professor Oak's lab, Pikachu on his shoulder. "I hope he hasn't started his poetry yet." Ash said huffing and puffing as he ran up to the door of the lab. He gave two knocks, and walked inside.

"Ah, Ash. It's nice to see you bright and early today." Greeted the Professor.

"Hi Professor," Ash smiled. "I'm here to see how my Pokemon are doing."

"Oh they're doing just fine, I'll take you to them out back. Follow me." They both headed out the back door of the lab to the large field with numbers of Pokemon running around. "Heyyy!" Ash shouted. He ran straight toward his old Pokemon. "Snorlax! Bulbasaur!" Ash called out, naming off a couple.

"They've all missed you Ash." Professor Oak stated. Pikachu twitched it's ears, footsteps were coming behind Professor Oak.

"Back so soon huh Ash?" Called a familiar voice. Ash stopped greeting his Pokemon and turned around, a sour look went across his face. "Gary… what are you doing here?"

"This _is _my grandpa's lab. Shouldn't you be trying to capture new Pokemon? Or do you still use the weak ones?" Laughed Gary. Ash growled.

_When I beat him in the Pokemon League I thought we had finally become friends, but now it seems that he's back to his old self and sour as ever._

"My Pokemon are not weak! They beat you in the Pokemon League, and they'll beat you again right here!" Ash yelled as he took a step forward, clenching his fists.

"Now hold on Ash," Professor Oak stepped in. "Gary has been delivering packages for me to the Pokemon labs in the other regions."

"Huh?" Ash said. "After the Pokemon League Gary came back here for a break, only earlier than you. He's been doing some errands for me." Explained the professor.

"That's right Ash, and I've got a lot of new Pokemon on my trips that I'm sure you haven't even seen yet." Grinned Gary as he spun a poke ball on his finger. "What have you done?"

_He caught more Pokemon?_

Ash scratched his head as he stumbled on his words. "Um, I… well.."

"I knew it, you haven't done anything. How about a battle? Or are you too chicken?" Taunted Gary.

"_You're _the one that should be chicken Gary! After losing to me at the Pokemon League I'm surprised you aren't embarrassed enough to battle!"

Gary then grabbed the poke ball that was spinning on his finger. Ash's words seem to have struck a chord with him. He went quiet, and stared at Ash.

"Oh Gary, that reminds me. I have the last package for you to deliver ready. I'm thinking I might just send it through the mail this time though." Professor Oak said.

"Huh? Gramps you know you can trust me." Gary said snapping back into normal state.

"It's not that. This package is to be sent to the Snowpoint City in the Sinnoh region. Professor Rowan is building a new Pokemon lab up there, and I want to send him these pokedex's for the new trainers. But getting to Snowpoint would be a difficult journey, the weather is harsh and the Pokemon in the region are more dangerous."

Gary closed his eyes and crossed his arms. "Hmph, I can handle that."

"I'll do it Professor!" Shouted Ash. Gary and the professor both looked at the boy.

"But Ash, you just got back from your journey. Shouldn't you continue your break?" Asked Professor Oak.

"No way! I want to be able to catch all kinds of new Pokemon too! Pikachu and I are ready to go!"

"Pi-pikachu!"

Professor Oak took his eyes off of Ash and back onto Gary."I can do this Gramps." Gary said staring at his grandfather.

"Gary, I'll let you go." Sighed the professor.

"See, only good Pokemon trainers get sent on journeys like these." Gary said pointing to himself. Ash gave a dirty look toward Gary, but he was already looking back at Professor Oak.

"On one condition," the boys both looked at the old man. "Ash joins you on the trip too."

Gary clenched his fists. "What!?"

"With two strong trainers there shouldn't be anything I have to worry about."

"Yeah! You're right Gary, only _good _Pokemon trainers are able to go on trips like these." Said Ash as he stuck out his tongue at his rival.

Gary crossed his arms again. "Ridiculous."

"I've made my decision. I'll see the both of you tomorrow morning at 7am, you'll have to take the ferry to get there. I'll make sure to get you tickets today. You'll arrive at Canalave City, it's a long trip but I'm sure you both will think of something to do to pass the time. See you tomorrow boys." Professor Oak said as he walked back into his lab.

"Pikachu! This is going to be great!" Ash jumped excitedly. "Pika!" smiled the yellow mouse.

"See you tomorrow G-" Ash stopped in his sentence, his rival had already began heading towards a different part of the field at the lab. He sighed.

"Come on, Pikachu. Let's see the rest of the Pokemon then head home and train. We've got to be up early tomorrow."


	2. I'm on a Boat

Rival Survival - Chapter 2  
"I'm on a Boat"

It was 6:30 am in the morning, Ash and Pikachu were fast asleep. Unfortunately, they should have been getting ready to head to Professor Oak's at this time. During the night, Ash had rolled over with arms stretched knocking over his alarm. It fell onto the floor and broke, leaving Ash and Pikachu to sleep past what would have been the chime of the electrode alarm rolled.

Ash rolled over in bed, the sun was peering in through his window and onto his face. He opened his eyes slowly and yawned. Sitting up he gave a big stretch, trying to think of what he had to do today. The sun was bright, and Ash was about to lay down and go back to sleep until it popped into his head. "PROFESSOR OAK!" He shouted, waking up Pikachu.

"Professor Oak! Pikachu! What time is it?" Ash stumbled out of bed, pushing the tangled blankets off of him and attempting to reach for his clothes. "Pika?" It said, head tilted.

Ash was hopping around on one leg trying to get his pants on, he crashed into his desk and fell onto the floor. He looked to the side of him and saw his broken alarm clock. "My alarm! Pikachu we're late! We need to get to Professor Oak's!"

Ash managed to get his clothes and backpack on, Pikachu hopped onto his shoulder and Ash rushed down the stairs and bumped into his mom. "Ash I made you breakfast honey. Aren't you supposed to be at Professor Oak's right now?" She asked.

"Sorry mom I gotta go!" Ash said as he dashed through the kitchen, grabbing a handful of bacon, toast and an apple. "Here Pikachu." He said handing his partner the fruit. Ash ran towards the door and halted. "Wait, mom what time is it?" He asked out of breath.

"7:20 honey. Have a safe trip!" Ash was out the door as soon as he found out what time it was.

Ash was stuffing the food into his mouth as he ran up towards Professor Oak's lab. _Gary's going to tear into me as soon as I get there. Why did I have to be late today…_

Ash got up to the door, but didn't knock this time. Instead he slowly opened it and tiptoed in. He didn't see anyone in the front entrance, so he quietly walked closer to the lab and looked around the corner.

"Late as usual, Ash." A familiar voice said. Ash winced at the sound of the voice. He turned around and saw Professor Oak and Gary.

"Ash, you're lucky I got you both a taxi to get to the ferry today. Are you really ready for this trip?" Asked the professor.

"Yes Professor Oak! Sorry I'm late, I -" Ash was cut off by Gary. "Don't make up excuses Ash, you're either ready or you're not."

"Alright then, here are the pokedex's and ferry tickets. I'll put these into your backpack." Said Professor Oak as he turned Ash around to open his pack.

There were a couple honks heard outside. "It sounds like your taxi is here. You boys better get going." Said the professor and he pushed them to the door. "Have a safe trip now. Gary, if you run into any trouble make sure to contact me."

"Sure thing gramps." Gary replied, as he walked out the door first.

"Bye professor." Ash said waving as he headed out the door next. Professor Oak stood at the front door waving to the both of them as they got into the taxi.

The doors shut, and both boys were now sitting in the vechicle. Surprisingly, Gary took the backseat along with Ash instead of trying to avoid by sitting up front.

_Maybe he isn't trying to avoid me as much as I think he is. _Ash looked at the ground. _We never did travel together since we both left Pallet our first day. Maybe he'll warm up a bit. _Ash smiled in hopes they could both build an actual friendship.

Ash looked over at Gary smiling. Gary gave him a disgusted look and rested his head on his arm up against the window. "Try not to be such a loser on this trip Ash." Said Gary as he looked out the window.

The smile went away from Ash's face. He looked a bit hurt, but then turned his head toward his window watching the houses and buildings go by.

Still resting his head on his arm, Gary's eyes went onto Ash. _He does look a little hurt. Maybe I have been a little hard on him since the Pokemon League. Or… even since we both started our own Pokemon journey. _Gary thought about his previous battles with Ash. He then remembered his last fight with him where he lost. Thinking about that battle always enraged Gary. Although that made him more hotheaded, Gary though to himself. _Maybe if I apologize he won't look like such a wimp, or mope around for the rest of this trip._ He sighed, then turned to Ash and began to open his mouth.

Ash heard Gary shuffle, he still felt insulted from what Gary had said and how he's been acting. "Gary, if anyone in this vehicle is a loser it's you! You, and your horrible attitude towards me. Stop being such a sore loser already!" Ash shouted, startling Pikachu. Ash stared at Gary for a moment, then went back to looking out the window. Pikachu looked at Gary who had a stunned expression across his face. It's ears were lowered, "Chu…" It said.

Gary went back to his original position and crossed his legs. "Hmph…loser." He mumbled.

~On the ferry~

The two boys began heading upstairs to the main deck, Ash was taking in all of the new sights and how big the ferry really was. Both of them seemed to have lightened up a bit since their exchange of words in the taxi earlier on. They got up to the main deck, it looked like a giant hotel inside. It was lit up nicely, and had a large lounge and dining area.

Ash's stomache growled. "Ugh, so hungry. Should have grabbed more for breakfast." He clutched his stomache and he and Gary walked further into the main deck. Ash took notice of the giant buffet. Ash started drooling and ran towards the buffet line. Gary grunted as he walked over towards Ash and Pikachu. "Good thing grandpa was able to get decent tickets, it covers food for hunger fiends like you Ash." Ash ignored Gary's comment, as they were getting closer to plating their food.

All of a sudden Ash felt he was being shoved. He assumed it was Gary, but before he could turn around he was pushed hard to the ground. Ash sat up and was moaning while rubbing his back. "Outta the way punk, I'm up next." The man had a deep voice, and looked like an unfit version of Lt. Surge. He looked larger than a Snorlax.

"Pikachu!" The yellow mouse shouted, bits of electric static coming out of it's cheeks. "It's okay Pikachu." Ash said. He got back up and got back into his place in line in front of the man, his stomache wasn't ready to back down. Ash was pushed to the ground again by the large man, harder this time. Ash winced in pain as he fell to the ground. He looked up at him, "Hey! My friend and I were in line!"

"Too bad kid, I'm eating first." The man said as he eyed the food. He felt a tap on his shoulder, he looked up and turned around but didn't see anyone. Brown spikey hair caught his attention. "Hey! If you're going to eat here you're going to have to wait in line like the rest of us. Not by budging in front of other people either. You got that?" Gary said, hands on his hips.

Ash blinked. "Gary?"The man looked at the purple clothed boy and was ready to get him out of his way too. He then saw the large crowd of people standing in line behind Gary, who all looked crossed with the way he was treating the boys. Gary narrowed his eyes and continued staring at the line budger. The large man looked at Ash, then back at Gary. He gave up, and walked away hitting shoulders with Gary as he was left. A couple people in line started clapping.

"Pika?" Ash's partner said, trying to see if Ash was alright. Ash patted Pikachu on the head. "Thanks Pikachu, but I'm okay." Ash tried getting up slowly, then stopped. He looked up, he saw Gary's hand reaching down toward Ash. Ash looked at Gary's hand, then put his into his rival's and stood up.

"You alright Ash?" Asked Gary.

"Yeah, I think I'm okay. He did push pretty hard." Ash replied.

"Alright then." Gary said, handing Ash a plate. Ash was surprised with how friendly Gary had just acted, he took the plate and bent down to put Pikachu up onto his shoulder. He scratched the back of his head. "Um, thanks Gary." Ash said quietly.

Gary was turned away from Ash already plating his food, and mumbled a response that didn't seem to be of any word known. Ash took what he could get.

~At the table~

Gary had just finished up his plate, but Ash was still hammering down more and more food. Gary watched as somehow Ash managed to down more food than all of his Pokemon put together. Even Pikachu looked stuffed. Ash gulped down his last piece of chicken, he took a drink of soda. He noticed Gary was staring at him. "What?" Ash asked. Gary shook his head and turned away, pulling out his pokedex. "I wouldn't eat that much while on a boat ride if I were you, Ash." He stated.

Ash shrugged off Gary's comment and looked around the deck. It really was built nicely. After a ten minute rest, Ash wanted to head outside to the outer deck. Gary unwillingly followed as Ash ran to the front of the ship. He breathed in the fresh air and felt the wind go through his hair. There was a big gust of wind, Ash grabbed onto his head but the wind already sent his hat flying into the direction behind him. Gary wasn't too far behind, hands in his pockets he walked up towards where Ash was. He saw the red Pokemon League hat flying toward him, he took his hands out of his pockets and grabbed it and finally got up to Ash. "Here." Gary said, handing the hat over to the boy.

Ash put his hat back on and corrected the position. Normally Ash would have brought up conversation, instead he decided to enjoy the sound of the breeze and view with his rival. Gary felt as if he was in a love and hate relationship with Ash, but he really was just glad to be traveling with someone who wasn't a Pokemon for once.

After about 15 minutes of silence Ash's stomache started growling again, but unlike last time it wasn't his hunger that was getting to him. Gary was right, it _was_ bad to eat so much on a ship ride. Ash's face started to turn green. "Ugh…" He moaned, as he hung himself over the railing

Gary looked at Ash questionably. "Ash?" All Gary got in response was more moaning. Gary laughed a little. "I told you Ashy boy, you eat that much on a ship you're gonna get sick."

Ash sank down onto the ground. Pikachu was rubbing his back. "Well, maybe we oughta head up into the room until you get better. I don't want you to slow us down when we get off this ship." Gary said, throwing Ash's arm over his shoulder lifting him up. Ash was in a daze, but managed to walk with Gary up onto the deck above them to their room

Gary struggled to open the door while holding Ash up, but was able to get it open. Gary was huffing and puffing a little, but it would have taken more than that to truly tire him out. Gary and Pikachu helped Ash onto the bed, he still looked green with sea sickness. Gary puffed the pillows a little for him, then looked around the room. He sighed. "Thanks gramps, only one bed."

Gary slumped down in the chair next to the bed. Pikachu curled up beside Ash. Thankfully the both of them had a lot of time to rest, as the ferry trip wouldn't get them to their destination until evening. It only took minutes for Ash to fall asleep. Gary remained in the chair, head resting on his hand. After a few a minutes he began to doze off himself.

A few hours later, Ash woke up from his sleep. He rubbed his eyes and looked around the room. He felt a little queezy still, but nothing like before. He was out of it earlier, he couldn't remember how he got up here. He saw Pikachu sleeping beside him. Ash looked over to the side of him and saw Gary sleeping in a chair. "Gary?" He said.

Gary stirred a bit in his sleep but didn't wake up. Ash thought he looked peaceful for once, instead of acting his cocky self and throwing insults at him. Ash didn't bother to bug the boy any more, he put his head back onto the pillow and stared at the ceiling. _Guess it would have been a disaster so far if Gary wasn't here. _He still felt a little sea sick, so he decided to go back to sleep for a little while longer.

About an hour later Ash had woken up again, this time getting up to use the washroom and get a drink of water. He came back into the room and sat on the bed, he was feeling a lot better than he did earlier. He looked over at Gary who was still sleeping. _I wouldn't have expected Gary to be such a heavy sleeper._

Pikachu shuffled in bed and woke up to Ash turning on the tv. "Pikachu!" It smiled, happy that Ash was feeling better. The sound of Pikachu's voice finally had woken Gary up. Ash looked over, Gary had a drowsy look across his face. He caught Ash looking at him.

"Guess you're feeling better?" Gary asked, still feeling tired. "A lot better, and I learned my lesson about eating too much on the water." Ash said with a goofy look on his face.

Gary stood up and stretched, he walked over to the window. He looked at his watch. "It's 2 pm, we still have until 8 until we arrive at Canalave City."

"So, what are we going to do until then?" Ash said looking over at Gary.

"_I'm_ going downstairs to write down routes we can take on the map, and also to check the Pokemon located in the areas we'll be heading to."

"Well, if that's something to do. I'll come down with you." Said Ash getting up.

"Tch, I'm going by myself. What do you know about maps? Doesn't Brock figure that out for you?"

Ash was shocked at Gary's response. This morning he seemed more friendly and helpful toward Ash, now he's gone back to his old self again. "I'm just as good at it as you are." Ash said.

Gary looked at Ash who was determined to go with Gary. He thought for a moment about allowing him to come, then changed his mind immediately. "Go find your baby toys to play with." Gary said as he slammed the door.

Ash waited until he heard the footsteps go away. He went back over to the bed and sat down. He noticed a pamphlet on the night stand, he reached over and opened it. Ash read that there was a basketball court located somewhere on the ship. He was too young to gamble, so Ash eventually decided to go find it. "Come on Pikachu, let's go find something to do without Gary."


	3. Swimming with the Fishes

Rival Survival - Chapter 3

"Swimming with the Fishes"

**Half of this was written during the day, and the other around 2am -_-**

Ash bounced the basketball a few times on the court, Pikachu had been watching Ash shoot baskets for the last 20 minutes. Ash sighed and held the ball. Unlike Gary who traveled alone, Ash always had his friends keeping him company. He wasn't used to being by himself for so long. It was unfortunate, Ash knew that Brock and Misty would have really enjoyed themselves on such a nice ship.

Ash put the ball away and called Pikachu, he walked on the outer deck around the ship with his partner. Ash didn't realise he had walked by the wi fi center where Gary was using the internet. Gary noticed Ash looking depressed and couldn't help but feel a little bad. He tried to continue working but couldn't get the image of Ash with a depressed look on his face out of his head. Gary scratched his head in frustration, then grabbed his things and left the area.

He tried to rush outside to catch up to Ash, but bumped into someone. "YOU!" Shouted a familiar face. Gary brought up his arm to protect himself. It was the large man from earlier who budged in line at the buffet. "You punk kid, think you can make me look stupid now? Come here!" The man shouted as he attempted to grab hold of Gary. Gary ducked and dodged out the door onto the outer deck running up to Ash.

Ash heard some commotion behind him and turned around to see Gary running at him. Gary grabbed Ash's arm and pulled him with him. "Gary! Hey, what's going on!? What are you doing?"

"I don't have time to talk Ash!"

They both heard a big roar. "Arrgh, you kids! Get back here!" Ash then knew what Gary was running away from.

"Come on Ash, we can out run him." Gary said. They both tried to run back inside but the entrances were blocked by large tourist groups going in and out of the ship.

"Shoot!" Said Gary, feeling extremely frustrated. "Come on, to the back of the ship!"

They both ended up at the very back of ferry, but the large man wasn't too far behind them. Everyone on board the ship was either inside or at the front near the pool.

"Times up boys." The large man said, cracking his knuckles.

Gary was desperately trying to figure out a way to get rid of this guy, he looked in all directions of the area but they were stuck. He turned around, Ash was standing in front of him. The large man clenched his fist and rushed toward them. Ash was standing his ground, but Gary pushed him out of the way, "Ash you moron!" He took a full hit in the face. Gary was seeing stars, and stumbled back and hit the railing. He fell over backwards and fell off of the ship and into the water. Ash wanted to call out, but was too stunned for words. He looked back at the rampaging man, then back over the ship. Ash could see where Gary had hit the water. The man was winding up another punch.

"Hold your breath Pikachu!" Ash backed up and jumped off of the ship after Gary as the man charged after was a loud splash as Ash and Pikachu landed into the water.

Underneath the water Ash was holding his breath, trying to look for Gary. There was no sign of him. Ash went back up to the surface and caught his breath, still looking around for Gary. The waves were crashing into him and Pikachu, then he caught site of Gary's spikey hair. He was conscious, Ash could hear him coughing. "Pika pi! Shouted Pikachu. That caught Gary's attention. Ash began swimming up to Gary, he looked dazed, but he seemed to be alright. Ash breathed a sigh of relief when he got to Gary.

"Gary! Are you alright?" Ash asked, paddling like a dog in the water.

Gary was coughing still. "Yeah, nothing to worry about." He said breathing in heavily.

"I don't think so, Gary." Ash said. "You aren't going to pull that tough guy attitude on me and Pikachu. "Pika!" It nodded.

Ash noticed the redness on Gary's face from the punch. "That looks like it hurts, Gary." Ash said putting his hand towards the other boy. Gary hit it away.

"Don't touch me, Ash!" Gary snarled. "We need to get out of here. We aren't going to last in the ocean for too long on our own." Gary stated, as he looked toward the ferry slowly getting out of their distance. Gary took a moment to think, then it came to him.

"Nidoqueen!" He shouted as Nidoqueen came out of it's poke ball. "Hold on, Ash." (Going by using surf in the Pokemon games)

Both of the boys grabbed a hold of the back of Nidoqueen, and it began to swim. "Thay way, Nidoqueen." Gary said pointing into the direction of the ferry, almost out sight now.

The water was cold, but Ash was glad to not be doing any of the work right now. There was an awkward silence for a little while as both Ash and Gary looked like two small dots in the large ocean. Ash knew Gary didn't want to ask again how he was feeling, or if he was hurt at all, but he couldn't help but notice the red mark on Gary's face. Ash took in a deep breath. "Are you sure you're okay, Gary?" He asked, closing his eyes preparing himself to be yelled at.

"I'm okay, Ash. I got the wind knocked out of me from the way I fell, but the bruising should go away with some ice when we get to shore. I'm not too worried about it." Ash opened one eye, then both. Ash was annoyed by Gary's actions most of the time, and his attitude, but Ash always admired Gary's determination. _I guess I probably would have wanted to get babied if that had happened to me._

"We'll be okay, Ash. Don't worry, just hold onto Nidoqueen and we'll be at Canalave as soon as we can."

Ash sighed another breath of relief, then something struck him. _Professor Oak's pokedex's!_

"Gary! The pokedex's! They're probably all ruined from the water."Gary smirked.

"Like I said Ash, we'll be fine. My grandpa made those pokedex's water proof. He's a great professor, you didn't think a little water could damage _these _pokedex's did you?"Ash blinked.

"Oh… well, now I can finally relax a little bit then. Being in this large ocean by ourselves is overwhelming though." Ash wondered what kind of Pokemon were swimming underneath them, or maybe even what kind of Pokemon would come up to _eat_ them. A giant Gyarados? Ash shuddered at the thought.

Gary took notice of Ash's expression. "Why don't you list off the Pokemon you've caught, Ash. Don't bore me though." Ash thought to himself, then began to list off his Pokemon.

~A couple hours later~

Gary was rubbing his face as the water crashed up against him, his rival and Nidoqueen. Gary winced a little as he hit a sensitive area on his injury. Ash was looking at Gary the whole time, as it seemed he was off in his own world.

"Thanks again, Gary." Ash mumbled.

Gary glanced over at Ash. "Hm?"

"That's about the third time you've saved me now..."

"Yeah, whatever Ash." Gary said looking out at the open ocean.

Hours went by and the sun began to set. Both of the boys kept mostly quiet, though Ash did name off his list of Pokemon when he got nervous again.

Gary lifted himself up a bit and put his hand over his eyes. "I think I see land!"

Ash brightened up, "Really?"

"Yep, it should take us about another hour to reach the port." Said Gary.

"Pikachu! We're almost to land!" Ash cheered. "Chu!" It shouted.

~At the port~

Nidoqueen finally reached land. Gary returned it to it's poke ball. "Good work Nidoqueen, you deserve a break."

It was a little difficult for both of them to stand, and their arms were tired from holding onto Nidoqueen for so long. "There's a mart over there, I'll meet you over there in a second. I'm going over to the ferry service and tell them what happened." Gary pointed.

Ash nodded and walked over to the mart, legs wobbling. "Piiika." It giggled. "Don't laugh Pikachu." Ash said, embarrassed in front of his partner.

Ash spent about 10 minutes in the mart waiting for Gary, he walked around in circles in the isles trying to get the feeling back into his legs. He heard the store door open, it was Gary.

"There you are."Ash said.

"Hmph, I wasn't that long. I told them what happened and who did it. They're putting us up in a nice hotel tonight, and giving us free ferry tickets for two for the rest of the year." Gary said, sounding disappointed.

"A hotel? Free year round tickets? What's wrong?" Asked Ash.

"I wanted to be able to start traveling tonight when we got here."

"What? Gary, are you joking?"

"It wouldn't have been for too long, probably sometime past midnight so we can get an early start. Oh well though, come on Ash. Let's head over to the hotel." Gary said heading out the door.

"What? We need to stock up on supplies, everything we had got wet." Ash said.

"We can do that tomorrow. They'll probably give us free food at the hotel, we'll just use that to stock up for food. Now let's go." Said Gary as he got out the door. Ash was about to protest again, but his clothes were wet, and he felt exhausted. He and Pikachu followed Gary to the hotel next door.

~In the hotel room~

Because of the mishap, Ash and Gary were put in to one of the fanciest rooms in the hotel. Their room service had taken their wet clothes and put them in the wash. Now the both of them were wearing white hotel robes and enjoying the free food on their comfy beds while waiting for their clothes to dry. Gary began looking around the room. "I forgot to get a map from the mart to plan our route for tomorrow."

Ash smirked. "Well, I didn't. Here." Ash said reaching down from his bedside then handing Gary a map.

Gary was shocked. Ash was _prepared._ He didn't want to admit it in front of Ash, but he was completely exhausted. Figuring out a route on the map was the last thing he wanted to be doing right now. His head ached, and the side of his face was throbbing. Gary shook it off, and began searching for different routes to take.

Twenty minutes had gone by, and they heard a knock at their door. Ash got up and answered it. He came back with their clothes and handed Gary's to him. Gary then got up and went to the bathroom. Ash was staring blankly. Gary came out a couple minutes later, fully clothed looking like he was already ready to start their journey, but Ash could see a tired expression on his rivals face.

Ash decided he should change too, if he was already clothed for tomorrow then he could sleep in more he thought. Ash and Gary both sat on their beds, Ash was finishing his food and Gary was continuing to map out routes for tomorrow.

About a half hour later Ash and Pikachu were up watching tv. Ash didn't hear any paper shuffles coming from Gary's side anymore, and when he looked over he noticed Gary was passed out in bed with the map on top of him.

Ash forgot Gary never put ice onto his face to lower the swelling. Ash got up and left the room to retrieve a small bag and some ice for Gary. He came back into the room, he didn't want to wake the other boy but he knew it would help his injury. He nudged Gary a little, but he didn't move. Then Ash started to shake him, and he removed the map off of his rival. Gary slowly opened his eyes and saw Ash staring down at him with a pack of ice. "Ash…" Gary said, feeling exhausted.

"Here Gary, get up for a second."

Gary reluctantly stood up and Ash grabbed the blankets and pulled them down. Ash smiled, "There you go."

Gary closed his eyes and let out a 'hmph'as he climbed back into bed. Ash put the blankets over top of Gary and gave him the ice. "You need to put that on your face, Gary."

"The swelling will go down on it's own." Gary replied, waving Ash away.

"I know you're smarter than that." Ash said, walking back over to his bed getting under the sheets. He turned the tv off.

Gary shuffled in bed a bit, then put the pack of ice on the side of his face. He didn't like the cold at first, but felt asleep quickly again to not care about it. Ash looked over at the other bed, he was glad Gary somewhat listened to him. Before shutting the light off Ash properly set the alarm. It was 10:30 pm, Ash knew Gary wanted to be up around 7:30 at the latest. "Better get some sleep." Ash said to himself, and with that Ash had already passed out along with Pikachu.


	4. Back to Our Routes

Rival Survival - Chapter 4

"Back to Our Routes"

It was still dark in the hotel room, but the sun was finally beginning to rise. A beam of sunlight lit across both beds. Everyone remained asleep, and Gary and Pikachu managed to get through a night of Ash's snoring, though the little mouse was already used to the noise.

Gary turned slightly in bed, he couldn't make out if the cold damp feeling on his face was part of his dream or reality. He shivered and attempted to get back into his deep sleep. Gary felt too uncomfortable and lifted his hand on his face. It was a bag full of water from the melted ice that had leaked slightly overnight. Gary grumbled to himself and used the bed sheets to dry his face. He rubbed his eyes and looked around, he squinted as the sunlight coming in through the window was spread across the room now.

Gary saw Ash and Pikachu still sleeping. He looked at the clock. _6:30 am. _Gary threw the blankets over to the side and got out of bed, feeling more refreshed than he did last night. After he had gone to the bathroom Gary came back out and grabbed his backpack, the hotel keys and quietly left room.

The click of the door snapped Pikachu out of it's sleep. It's ears twitched, it climbed on top of Ash. "Pika," it said. Ash groaned lightly and opened his eyes. He saw Pikachu sitting on top of him. "Pi-pikachu!" It said happily.

"Pikachu," Ash looked over the clock. "What!? 6:40? It's not time to get up yet buddy, we still have another twenty minutes…" Ash said flipping over to go back to sleep. Pikachu jumped off, it noticed the leftover food from last night, it's eyes sparkled as it ran over to munch on some early breakfast.

Ash slept through the remaining twenty minutes before the alarm went off. BEEP, BEEP, BEEP it went. Ash slammed his fist down onto the alarm clock, he rolled over in bed wanting to go back to sleep. Pikachu ran over to him and nudged him until he got out of bed. Ash finally took notice that Gary was missing. Ash checked the entire bedroom, "Pikachu, did you see Gary leave?" It shook it's head from side to side and shrugged it's shoulders.

_What if he left without me?_Ash thought to himself. To Ash it seemed that Gary had more mood swings than Misty. He began to doubt himself, _he did probably already leave early without me. I really wanted to catch new Pokemon and see the different cities…_Ash then stood up and growled, "That Gary! If he left without me I'll-" Ash was cut off by the opening of the door. With his backpack slung around one shoulder and hand underneath the strap, Gary walked into the room with a big smirk on his face staring at Ash. "Morning, Ash." He said, in an almost taunting voice. Ash put his hands to his sides, "I thought you left already."

"Hehe, yeah right. If I planned on leaving already I would have let you handle the human snorlax back there on the boat." Gary said putting his backpack on the ground. "Here, I bought the rest of the supplies we'll need. Don't ruin them."

Ash snatched everything from Gary and put it all into his own backpack. Ash took a look at Gary while he was organizing the items in his pack. _At least the swelling went down, it doesn't that bad at all now. _Gary caught Ash staring at him and gave him a dirty look, Ash averted his eyes. Gary checked his hair in the mirror, "Let's head out." He opened the door then stopped, Ash bumped into him, Gary looked back at the other boy. "This isn't going to be a walk in the park, Ash. Just follow me, and don't slow me down."

Ash crossed his arms and looked away, Gary walked out the door followed by Ash and Pikachu.

~Route 218~

Ash stretched his arms and smiled. "Smell that fresh air!"

"I wouldn't be surprised if that smell came from Floaroma Town." Gary said.

"Floro-what?" Asked Ash. Gary rolled his eyes and put his map away. "This way," he said heading down the dirt road.

Down the path Gary didn't lose the stern expression he had on his face. He didn't want to admit it to Ash, but he felt worried about how they would really get to Snowpoint City. There were cliffs, rivers and Pokemon the both of them had never encountered before. Gary liked adventure, but he also liked being one step ahead. He took out his pokedex and began to look up different Pokemon to give his mind a break.  
Ash looked more carefree on their adventure. While Gary kept himself buried in his pokedex, Ash had been pointing out all of the different trees, mountains and anything else that interested him out to Pikachu. Gary glanced over at Ash, he admired the strong relationship between Ash and his Pikachu, like Gary and his Umbreon.

The boys trip hasn't got off to that great of a start, and it was about to get worse for the both of them. Team Rocket had just spotted them and were already thinking up a plan to finally capture Ash's Pikachu for good.

Three pairs of binoculars peaked out through the bushes. "Oh! Two twirps and a Pikachu! It's our lucky day James!" Jesse shouted excitedly.

"Shh! Don't you go ruinin' this! We have to think of a proper way to capture dat Pikachu and the twirps Pokemon! Without getting blown away like we usually do…"

"Doesn't the kid usually travel with the red head and older kid?" James asked.

Meowth growled, "Dat's Gary Oak, the one who tackled me in Giovanni's Gym. We'll make sure to get everyone last one of their Pokemon!"

"Where do you think they're heading to though?" James asked again.

Jesse stood up, "Let's just keep an eye on them for now."

Twenty minutes after being spotted by Team Rocket, Ash finally settled down. The only thing breaking the awkward silence were the chirps of the birds. _At least it's a beautiful morning _Ash though to himself, putting his arms behind his head. He looked over at Gary who still had his nose in his pokedex. "Are you going to stare at that thing the whole time?" Ash asked. Gary ignored Ash's question, Ash sighed. "Come on, Gary. At least say something to me, insult me if you have to." Ash said, now regretting his comment.

Gary looked up at Ash with a smug look, "Is that so?" Ash began shaking his head no and waving his arms in front of him back and forth. Gary lifted his hand to the side of his face, the bruise wasn't that sensitive anymore. Feeling the side of his face Gary looked ahead of him and noticed a Pokemon in the bushes, he stopped and put his hand above his belt. Ash stopped too, looking at Gary. He looked ahead to see what Gary spotted and got excited. "Oh! A new pokemon!" Ash checked his pokedex, it was a Staravia.

Gary put his arm in front of Ash. "Back off, Ash! This is pokemon is mine! I spotted it first." He walking up slowly to the Staravia.

"What? No way, Gary! You've already got new pokemon, this is my turn now! Out of the way!" Ash shoved Gary.

"Will you be quiet? You're going to scare it away, and then you'll have nothing to catch." Gary said shoving back. Gary threw a poke ball, Umbreon popped out. They were both pushing and shoving, staring the other down. Umbreon and Pikachu looked at each other. Both of the boys slowly creeped toward the Staravia, still pushing each other back and forth. Ash finally shoved Gary off of him, causing his rival to fall on his stomache with a big thud sound. The commotion startled the bird pokemon and ended up flying away into the sky. Umbreon and Pikachu weren't surprised and both sighed.

Ash took a step back, he wanted Gary off but he didn't mean to push _that_ hard. Gary coughed twice, his hands were sprawled out in front of him. The dust settled around him on the road as he watched the Staravia fly away. He pushed himself up off of the ground and dusted himself off, not once looking at Ash. Gary returned Umbreon to his poke ball, attached it onto his belt and begun walking along the path again without saying a word to the boy behind him.

"Pika-pi," it said looking up at Ash. He stood there watching Gary walk further away. _I can't do anything right. _He adjusted his backpack strap and followed behind Gary.

A couple hours went by and both Ash and Gary didn't say a word to each other. Ash knew he was a lot more social than Gary, it was killing him that they haven't been getting along. Gary was looking at his map and broke the hourly silence, "Router 218 should take us to Jubilife City. We're just coming up on it now. But Ash…" Gary stopped.

Ash gave Gary a questionable look, "Hmm?"

Gary had a serious expression across his face. Ash could see the town behind Gary, and the checkpoint building they had to go through. The buildings were so tall, it looked like a busy town.

"What is it, Gary?"

"Maybe you should go back to Pallet, Ash."Ash was shocked, they had been through quite a lot already. Why would Gary want to send him away like that? Ash couldn't muster any words. Gary spoke up again, "Ash, I think you'd enjoy yourself more if you went back home and meet up with Brock and Misty early."

Ash felt a little hurt, then ended up getting angry. "Gary, is this over the Staravia? There's more out there you know! Or is it because you think you're a better pokemon trainer than I am?" Ash continued listing off the possible problems Gary might have with him, but Ash's ranting was drowned out by Gary's own thoughts. Deep down he knew this trip was going to be a difficult one, it was eating away at him. Gary thought of even turning back himself, but he knew he was a strong trainer and didn't want to go back at this point. While he was still upset with Ash and the events in the Pokemon League, he didn't want to risk the safety of an old childhood friend.

Gary was a determined trainer and worthy competitor, but what he wasn't good at was getting out his feelings. While Ash stood there ranting, there was only one thing that Gary Oak could do. _Walk away._

Ash stopped in mid sentence when Gary turned around and headed toward the checkpoint building.

"Gary?""Pika!Ash ran up to Gary and they both stood at the front entrance to the building. "Go home, Ash. It'll be faster if I finish this trip by myself."

Ash gave Gary a little smile, "If we work together it'll go by a lot quicker. You, me and Pikachu!" Ash grabbed a hold of Gary's shoulder to prevent him from going inside. Gary's eyes narrowed, "Get off of me!" He swung around and pushed the other boy to the ground. Ash was sitting on the ground looking up at Gary. They stared at each other for a moment, Ash then looked away as Gary walked inside.

Birds had stopped chirping, Pikachu was looking up at his partner. Ash pulled his hat further down his face, his heart had sunk to the very bottom.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5 - "That Gary"

Gary walked into Jubilife City, he lifted his head up and gazed at the enormous buildings. He walked by the Poketch building, there were people dressed up as clowns handing out flyers on the new Poketch models. Gary dodged all of the flyers being shoved into face as he continued to walk by. After clearing the dozens of clowns, Gary's stomache began to growl. He decided to stop and find a quick bite to eat somewhere before setting back out onto his journey.

On his quest to find a restaurant, numerous thoughts were flooding Gary's mind about Ash. He felt extremely guilty, especially after shoving his old friend to the ground, but he knew he had made the right decision in continuing on alone. So why was he still thinking about it? Gary sighed, and tried shaking it off. He finally strolled up to a local restaurant and went inside.

~Ash and Pikachu~

After spending ten minutes sitting on the ground sulking, Ash stood up and dusted himself off. He tried reassuring Pikachu that he was okay, though he knew he was far from it. Ash looked back up at the buildings in Jubilife, then turned his head and looked behind him. _Maybe I should just go back and meet up with Brock and Misty early. _Ash turned around and took one step. _No! We already came this far, Gary can't send me away like that. _Ash clenched his fists, _maybe I was slowing him down, but we can't keep hating on each other…_

Childhood memories and recent events appeared back and forth in Ash's mind. After hearing and dealing with all of the insults up to this point from Gary, and how upset Ash now felt, at the moment the bad outweighed the good memories he and Gary shared. He began walking down the pathway that lead back to Canalave City. Ash grabbed onto his backpack strap, then immediately stopped. "Pika-pi?"

"Aww, no! Professor Oak's Pokedex's! Pikachu, Gary only has half of them."

_I guess we weren't thinking of Professor Oak's delivery at the time. _Ash let out a sigh, then he thought to himself that maybe this was a small sign that he should continue to travel with Gary. " I guess we're going back with Gary, Pikachu."

Turning around, Ash broke into a sprint. He was still mad at Gary, but the whole trip was for Professor Oak. _No more messing around, _Ash thought.

~At the restaurant~

Gary was seated next to the window with a map and pokedex on the table, he leaned forward and rested his head on his hand, but winced as his face still had some bruising. Gary grumbled to himself as he remembered the events on the boat from earlier, he took one last bite of his food and called the waitress over. Gary looked out the window as he folded up his map, it was a nice sunny day and it was unfortunate to spend it alone. A blur of yellow, blue and red rushed by the window; Gary blinked. He was positive he knew what it was, and shoved everything into his backpack and ran out of the restaurant. He looked to his side and was about to give a smile, until what he thought was his old rival actually turned out to be a clown from the poketch building zooming down the street on bicycle.

Slightly feeling disappointed, Gary began walking to the closest exit out of town to Floroma for his next destination.

~Ash and Pikachu~

Ash was panting as he ran through the streets of Jubilife, he held up an old picture to people asking if they've seen Gary. He stopped on a street corner and began to think of where he could be in town, he saw a map posted on the side of a building, "Let's see… look Pikachu, there's a Pokemon Academy here. If Gary hasn't left town yet, I'm certain he'll be in that area. Let's go!"

"Pikachu!"

Off Ash and Pikachu went, he was certain Gary would be there. As the grandson of Professor Oak it'd be unusual for him to pass up visiting a Pokemon Academy.

Ash ran down the streets of Jubilife, one of the very few people without a bike. He could see the academy up ahead, "Almost there, Pikachu!"

Pretending to be plants outside a store, Team Rocket had been keeping an eye on both of the boys around town. They got up in their plant costumes and slowly followed behind Ash.

By now Ash was really out of breath, he was hoping Gary hadn't left town yet. He came up to the front entrance of the academy and looked inside, there were desks and white boards with young kids chatting and reading books. Just like Ash had predicted, in the far corner of the room, was Gary Oak putting one of the books away while talking to another professor.

Ash was attracting attention from the other classmates as he was hunched over taking in deep breaths, Pikachu was patting his back. Ash didn't even have enough breath back to call to Gary, a few of the kids in the room started to point at him while whispering to each other. Putting one hand on the door frame, Ash stood back up finally able to catch his breath.

The professor Gary was talking to was facing the door and noticed the kids in the class were pointing to Ash, he averted his eyes from Gary who was still talking to him. "So I think an Ivysaur…" Gary stopped in mid sentence, noticing that the professor wasn't paying attention anymore. He turned around and blinked with surprise, "Ash?" Gary turned and looked back at the professor and bowed before walking over to Ash. "Gary…" Ash began, pulling himself together. "The pokedex's, you forgot them." Setting his packback to the ground, Ash pulled out the bag of pokedex's and handed them to Gary. They both still felt tension between them, Gary was staring at the bag, he couldn't believe he had completely forgotten about the other half of them. Gary then snapped at Ash, "You were supposed to go back home."

"And if I did? You wouldn't have the rest of your grandpa's package, I could go back home and travel with Brock and Misty…"

"And?"

Ash was looking down at his feet, Gary looked at his rival and the bag of pokedex's, a couple of kids in the classroom had been watching the both of them.

Ash then looked up with a smile, "I just think Pikachu and I are supposed to be here, so we're coming with you whether you like it or not." Ash said in a serious tone, surprising Gary.

"Pi-pikachu!"

Gary continued to stare at his rival, he closed his eyes and smirked, "Hn, you're just too stubborn huh, Ashy-boy?" Gary pushed the bag back into Ash's chest.

"Keep those, Ash. Keep up with me and don't slow me down, and just _maybe_ this trip won't be so miserable with you." Gary said as he walked out of the academy waving to the professor.

Though Ash never got an apology from earlier, it seemed to be the best that he could get from Gary at the moment. Ash accepted it for now, he hurried out the door after Gary.

The two got up to the exit road of Jubilife, Gary continued walking as Ash stopped and looked far ahead. He could see the large the mountains in the distaince, "Hey, look! There's snow up there, I wonder what kind of new Pokemon we'll see."

Ash scooted up behind Gary to catch up, "There will be a lot of tough terrain, and a lot of tough Pokemon."

"Pikachu and I can handle it!" Ash said raising his fist up into the air. Gary only smiled to himself and put his hands into his pockets. Ash and Pikachu began punching the air, Ash then felt his stomache growl. He put his hand over his stomache, then reached for his backpack and searched for a sandwich. Gary looked over at ash, "Your Pikachu has grown a lot since the last time I saw it at the Silver Conference."

"Speakin' of Pikachu…" A voice from the bushes whispered. "Once these kids see what Jesse and James are buildin' to capture their Pokemon, they'll be sorry they ever blasted Team Rocket off! Hehe!" Meowth squealed as he disappeared into the forest.

Ash smiled as he bit into his sandwich, Gary watched as Ash wolfed down the whole thing in less than thirty seconds. Ash noticed Gary was watching him, his face went red as he felt a little embarrassed for downing the sandwich down in front of him so fast.

After an hour and a half of walking down the path Ash and Gary came to a small river, Gary believed they were making decent time, the sun was going to set soon and they still had a small cave to go through before reaching Floroma. Gary suggested taking a short rest before heading for the cave, it would be night soon. Pikachu jumped off of Ash's shoulders and put it's paws playfully in the stream, Ash bent down toward the water and began splashing water onto his face. Gary set his packback down used it as a pillow for a short nap, Ash and Pikachu were being loud but Gary ended up dozing off quickly. Ash noticed that Gary had fallen asleep, he pulled himself back from the water and laid on the grass looking up at the sky.

After fifteen minutes had gone by Ash felt as if he was now dozing off, he snapped himself out of it and sat up. Pikachu had curled up into a little ball and fallen asleep, Gary was still sleeping when Ash looked over a second time. Gary had one hand on his stomache and the other behind his head, his rival looked beat but Ash knew he would never admit to exhaustion.

Gary had said he wanted to take a break for twenty minutes maximum, Ash looked at the stream. He went back to hovering over the river and splashed water on his face once more to wake himself up, then something caught his eye. He couldn't quite make out what was in the water, just ripples of orange. Ash bent down further for inspection, "KARP!"

A Magikarp had surfaced and jumped towards Ash's face, smacking his head back and forth with it's tail. "Ahhh!" Ash was startled and he slipped into the river. The Magikarp continued to slap him around until Ash finally got a hold of the Pokemon, the Magikarp began thrashing around frantically as Ash tried to maintain control of his hold. The fish Pokemon managed to break free and slap Ash one more time before falling into the water and swimming down the river.

Ash was sitting in the water soaking wet with his face a little red from the tail wacks, he began rubbing the side of face and groaning. Behind him, Gary and Pikachu were standing on the riverbank. Pikachu laughed, Gary had his arms crossed while shaking his head, "I suppose you're not much of a water Pokemon trainer."

Ash continued to groan as he rested his head on his hand, still feeling embarrassed he couldn't help but laugh at himself a little.

After setting back out onto the road, Ash began to dry off quickly from the heat of the sun. "Good thing it was so nice out today," he said looking up at the sky.

"You mean good thing it wasn't a Gyarados." Gary said looking over smirking. Ash crossed his arms, then looked up ahead. They were nearing the cave they had to travel through to get to Floroma, it didn't look as big as previous ones both of them had traveled to, but they knew looks can be deceiving.

The sun had began to set and Gary saw that there were large numbers of Zubat and Golbat circling the sky around the cave. Gary had a serious look on his face while walking toward the entrance of the cave, "Is something wrong, Gary?" Ash felt a little concerned as to why his rival was quieter than normal all of a sudden.

"This cave isn't too big, but who knows what type of Pokemon are in here. We'll need to stay close going through, Ash."

"You mean I have to stay even closer to you? Are you sure you're going to be okay with that?" Ash said jokingly. Gary ignored Ash's comment and lowered his hand to his belt, "Umbreon! I choose you!"

"Breon!" It said as it landed gracefully. Ash saw how beautiful Umbreon's coat looked, Gary must have been taking extra care of his Pokemon. Gary looked at Ash who was admiring Umbreon, "Let's go, Ash." Gary said sternly. Umbreon followed Gary inside the cave with Ash and Pikachu following close behind. The sun faded almost as soon as they entered the cave, it was now completely dark and neither of the boys and their Pokemon could see anything.

"Stay behind me, Ash." Gary took a few slow steps further, Ash tried to stay close but kept bumping into Gary. Feeling irritated with Ash, Gary wanted to get some light in the cave. "Ash, get your Pikachu to use flash."

"Pikachu…" It said.

"Umm, well…"

Gary grumbled and crossed his arms, "Don't tell me your Pikachu doesn't even know flash."

Ash scratched his head and hesitantly said, "It doesn't."

Ash never noticed, but Gary rolled his eyes. He took a moment to think, then ordered his Umbreon to use the glow from the circles on it's body. The light from Umbreon lit up a small area around the two boys, but they both heard small chirping near them. Gary looked confused until he saw the cave walls were lined with Zubat and Golbat, and the glow from Umbreon was waking them up. "Ash…don't move." Ash froze, but to the right side of Ash, Pikachu was face to face with a large Golbat.

"Cha…" It said nervously. The Golbat was about to go after Pikachu until it used a thundershock attack in defense. "Chuuu!"

"No, Pikachu!" Shouted Ash. Gary looked back at the both of them then heard loud chirping noises coming from the bat Pokemon, and like a large wave they swooped down from the walls and flew around the cave like a hurricane. Gary held on to Umbreon as Ash bent down to cover Pikachu, but both of the boys got knocked over by large Golbats. Gary and Ash turned over onto their stomaches with one arm over their Pokemon, high pitched screech's and gusts made both of the rivals put their heads down to the ground even further

After what seemed like forever, all of the bats in that area of the cave had flown outside. Not hearing anymore chirping, Ash looked up and realized that the bats were gone as he and Gary were not being pummeled anymore. Gary felt to see if his Umbreon was okay, Ash lifted up Pikachu, "Pikachu… gotta be more careful next time, okay?"

"Pika," it nodded.

Gary brushed his hair and clothes off, "Hmm," he began.

"Umbreon return."

"What are you doing that for?"

"It's too risky to use Umbreon's glow in this cave, I'm sure there are more places covered with bat Pokemon, along with who knows what else. I'll save Umbreon until we really need it."

Ash walked up to Gary and waited for him to make the next move. Gary took out a new Poketch he had bought, and fiddled with a few buttons.

"When did you get that?"

"In Jubilife, an application on this Poketch will show us the pathways out of this cave." Gary brought up the application and showed it to Ash. After a few moments of not being used, the light of the Poketch went off.

"Okay, we'll need to take a right."

Only after a few seconds of walking Ash had already bumped into Gary again, he growled, "Quit it, Ash!"

"Oops…" he mumbled. "I wish this cave was-" Ash was interrupted by the feel of Gary's hand on his own.

"Just stay close, and _stop_ bumping into me." Gary said, practically dragging Ash around a corner.

Ash's face was red, thankfully the cave was pitch black. Gary felt around with his free hand, Ash did the same as they both felt the cold cave walls. They both slipped a couple of times in large cracks on the ground, Gary looked at his Poketch again for directions then continued on.

Feeling along the cave Ash accidently touched a Zubat and got shivers, Gary felt Ash shake and waited until he calmed down before walking again. Gary grunted as he bumped into a large rock in their path, he moved around it as Ash followed. Gary then stopped, looking at his Poketch again, but Ash kept walking and got ahead of Gary.

"Ash? Hold on a second."

Ash looked back behind him, "Huh?"

There was a crumbling noise, then Gary felt Ash's hand slip away. Pikachu jumped off of Ash's shoulder and Gary dropped his Poketch, "Ash!"

***Another thanks to Shirokaze Rin for my first review ^_^ ***

Hope you all enjoyed!


	6. At the End of the Tunnel

Chapter 6 - "At the End of the Tunnel"

"Ash!" Gary shouted, the cave was pitch black and he couldn't see anything around him. The sound of crumbling rocks could be heard, "Ugh, Gary!" Ash shouted back.

"Umbreon, go!" Gary looked down at his pokemon, "Light it up, Umbreon!"

Gary didn't care about disturbing the other pokemon in the cave, he needed to see where Ash was quickly. Umbreon used it's glow technique, and Gary saw two hands hanging onto a cliff ledge. It was Ash, and below him looked like a bottomless pit, it was completely black and Gary didn't want to imagine his friend falling into the darkness.

Pikachu was calling out to it's trainer, Ash was beginning to slip; Gary bent down quickly and grabbed a hold of both Ash's wrists. He tried pulling his rival upward but began slipping on the ledge himself, Gary thought of using Nidoqueen but his hands were tied and he knew that if he let go now Ash would fall. Pikachu tried it's best to help Gary pull Ash up by holding the back of Gary's shirt.

Ash looked down behind him and became overwhelmed of not seeing anything beneath him, he imagined himself falling forever into a pit of darkness. Ash began to feel dizzy and loosened his grip a little, but Gary called out, "Ugh, Ash! Don't let go! I'm trying to pull you up, but I-" Gary cut his sentence as his knees slipped forward slightly, skidding against the dirt and rocks on the ground.

The sound of Gary's voice snapped Ash out of his dizzy state of mind, he moved his right arm up more onto Gary's arm for a better grip. "Pikaaa..." It said still making a futile attempt to help Gary pull Ash up. Fear began to take hold of Ash as he could see Gary struggling to pull him up, but was losing the battle. "G-Gary, don't let go!"

Gary could hear the fear in his rival's voice, he looked down at Ash. He felt frustrated that Ash walked ahead of him, but then a flash of a five year old Ash appeared in front of Gary. The smaller version of Ash was looking back up at him desperately, Gary then felt a burst of strength overcome him and he tightened his grip on Ash and began hauling his childhood friend up successfully. Gary kept one knee down and and raised his other foot in front of him as he gave one last pull; Pikachu pulled hard. When Ash got further over the ledge he let one hand go and set it on the ground to help pull himself up, Gary was out of breath but continued to help Ash. Finally, Gary pulled Ash up and Ash fell onto the ground, Pikachu rushed over. Gary laid on his back trying to catch his breath, Umbreon continued to use it's glow effect.

Ash sighed a breath of relief as he hugged Pikachu, he then moved furthest away from the ledge as possible. Ash looked over at Gary who remained on his back taking deep breaths, Ash was feeling extremely guilty, he reached into his backpack and pulled out his water bottle and moved over to Gary to hand it to him. Gary weakly took the bottle from Ash, both of them still trying to register what just happened. Ash rested up against a cave wall, there was a long moment of silence until he decided to speak up. "Thanks again, Gary. I know I shouldn't have gone ahead like that, I wasn't thinking."

Gary stared upwards from the ground, "You don't ever think, do you?" A Zubat fluttered passed both of the boys, Ash sunk lower into the ground after hearing Gary's remark. Gary heard Ash shuffle, he slightly regretted what he had said. He sat up and looked over at Ash, "Are you alright at least?"

Ash dusted the dirt off of himself a bit along with Pikachu dusting it away from him, "I seem to be fine, yeah. Are you alright? I guess I'm more heavy than I thought, hehe." Ash said scratching the back of his head. Gary grunted, "Hmph, maybe it's all of the food you scarf down."

Gary stood up and moved around Umbreon as he looked for his poketch he dropped, he located it quickly and picked it up and wiped it off. He sighed, "So as I was about to say earlier, we'll need to go right. It gets a little narrow, but just stay close to the cave walls."

Gary did not grab Ash's hand this time, he pulled at Ash's sleeve as he walked by. _He's probably mad…_ Ash thought. Watching Gary and Umbreon get a few steps ahead, Ash began walking with Pikachu now on his shoulder. _That wasn't supposed to happen, I wasn't supposed to make any mistakes…_

With Umbreon's glow, the two boys continued slowly on the narrow ledge. Ash didn't bother to look down, he had already gotten a good glimpse of what was below earlier. Gary let his hand glide on the cave wall beside them hesitantly taking every step, Umbreon had the lead and Gary watched closely to make sure it didn't slip. Ten minutes had gone by and the path began to change, they made it past the chasm and both of them felt a little more relieved now. Gary stopped, Umbreon noticed and halted as well; Gary looked around the area as best he could with the little amount of glow Umbreon was giving off. The ceiling of the cave was dripping water, Ash felt a small drop on his nose and rubbed it off. "Are we still going the right way?" He asked.

Gary looked down at his poketch and nodded, "Straight ahead here." Gary said as he began walking again. Both of the boys and their pokemon came to a small opening Gary explained they needed to go through, Ash gulped. "Is there any other way than going through here?"

"There is, though this way is a lot quicker."

Ash bent down, "Is it even safe? It looks cramped in there."

"You can go back to Pallet if you want, I'm going through here. I said you weren't supposed to slow me down. Figure it out, Ash."

Ash and Pikachu watched as Gary got down on all fours and started crawling through the the tunnel, letting Umbreon go first. Gary took his backpack off and held it with one hand in front of him as he began to crawl through, Ash sighed. Unwilingly, he got on all fours after Gary and Pikachu let Pikachu go ahead of for his backpack he took it off and held it with his one hand, and after biting his lip nervously he followed closely behind Gary and Pikachu.

Further behind them, back near the chasm, Meowth was slowly making his way across the small pathway. "Ugh, Jesse and James get all of the easy work."

Gary continued crawling with his one free hand while giving Umbreon enough room to move around. The space grew smaller but Ash and Gary still managed to get through successfully, Ash began to feel claustrophobic and started breathing in deeply. Gary heard Ash from behind him, "Jeeze, Ash. Lighten up a bit." Ash groaned lightly and he made his way behind Gary and Pikachu. Gary saw the end of the small tunnel, "There it is, Umbreon." He said with relief. Umbreon crawled out first, followed by Gary and Pikachu. Gary stared down at the tunnel, he reached his hand out and helped Ash up.

Ash stood up, though his legs were wobbly. Gary slapped Ash on the back, "Good job! A little braver than I thought, Ashy-boy." Just then, Gary was hit by a large grey blur and grunted as he landed against the wall. Ash gasped, "Gary!"

"Breon!" Umbreon rushed to Gary's side, Gary opened one eye slowly. It was a large Graveller, he realized that he was just hit with a tackle attack. Ash ran over to help his rival and lifted him up, but Gary shoved Ash away. "I'm fine. It's a Graveller…" Gary began.

"Grav!" It shouted.

Ash looked at the rock pokemon, it was the biggest Graveller he's seen yet. "Nidoqueen! I choose you!" Nidoqueen popped out of it's poke ball. The Graveller was about to attack again, but Gary shouted at his pokemon, "Nidoqueen! Surf!" A large wave of water appeared and crashed into the large Graveller and sides of the cave. The Graveller was washed away quickly, but the power of Nidoqueen's surf attack had shaken the cave. There was a low rumbling noise, Ash and Gary looked around them. A few rocks began to fall from the cave ceiling, Gary didn't let another moment go by. "Ash! This area is about to cave in, we need to get out of here fast! Come on! Umbreon, Nidoqueen return!" Gary called his pokemon back to their balls and grabbed onto Ash and pulled him along with him.

Ash dodged a large fallen rock and was hit with small debris, Gary used his one free arm to cover his head while he ran.

On the other side of the small tunnel the two boys had recently gone through, Meowth was standing there wondering what was going on. The small tunnel collapsed and Meowth backed up, his mouth dropped. "Huh!? Ahhh!" Meowth backed up and ran toward the longer exit of the cave.

Pikachu held on tight as Ash and Gary picked up their pace, the walls and ceiling of the cave were caving in faster. Gary could see the exit up ahead and began to run and drag Ash as fast as he could, "Hurry up, Ash!"

"I'm coming!" Ash said as he shielded himself from more falling debris.

Large rocks fell from the ceiling as the two boys got up to the exit, Gary leaped out of the cave as Ash followed. They both landed on their stomaches and Pikachu tumbled off of Ash, the exit collapsed and Ash and Gary were both breathing heavily as they watched the exit cave in. The remaining few rocks crumbled and then it was silent, there was a large cloud of dust but Gary and Ash were finally relieved to be out of the dark cave.

Gary turned on his side, "I didn't mean for Nidoqueen to create a cave in."

Ash sighed, "I really don't think you would ever mean to, Gary." He said as he grabbed Pikachu and brushed his buddy off. Gary looked up at the sky, he could see a numerous amount of shiney stars and full moon in this area of the forest. He checked his poketch, "It's ten thirty now," he began. "Let's just call it a night, Ash. If things go well we should be able to get past Eterna City tomorrow."

Ash rubbed his face, he did feel exhausted after today and nodded at Gary. "Let's find a place to rest for the night. Are you good to get up?" Asked Gary.

"I'm alright, just a little shaken. You can't keep Pikachu and I down!" Ash said with a smile and thumbs up.

Gary didn't respond and started walking, but looked back at Ash waiting for him to follow. Ash got up as he put Pikachu on his shoulder, he saw Gary looked dusty, but then looked down at himself and saw the same. Brushing the bushes out of his way, Gary found a small clearing in the forest that he thought would be good to sleep for the night. "Let's set up camp here."

Ash agreed and set his backpack down, he pulled out his sleeping bag and some matches. Gary began breaking branches down, he was tugging at one branch until it unexpectedly broke on him. He fell back onto the ground, Ash laughed at his rival as the branch was laying on top of Gary. He shoved it off of himself ignoring Ash, and began tugging at the smaller branches. Ash felt a stinging pain in his hand, he looked down and saw a blood stained glove. He lifted his green glove and noticed a small cut in the palm of his hand, he winced a little as he covered it back up. Ash looked into his backpack while Gary set up the branches to make a fire, he couldn't find any bandages or first aid kit, Ash assumed Gary had it but was too stubborn to ask.

Gary got a small fire going quickly, it crackled as Ash and Gary laid out their sleeping bags. They both sat down as a small breeze brushed by them, Ash bit his lip as his cut started throbbing. After getting comfortable on top of his sleeping bag, Gary noticed Pikachu was looking at Ash's hand, he tilted his head, "Something wrong, Ash?" Ash looked over at Gary, "N-no… I'm alright, it's just a small cut. It'll be fine in the morning."

Gary laughed, "Heh, yeah right. Playing tough guy, huh? Even I would clean such a small injury up. Take it from me, Ash." Gary said as he lifted his nose into the air. Ash held onto his hand and started blowing on it a bit, Gary rolled his eyes. "That looks pretty pathetic, Ash. Here." Gary reached into his backpack and pulled out the medical kit Ash was looking for earlier, Gary also pulled out his water bottle. He sat down beside Ash and took off his glove, he poured the water over his hand and dried it with a small cloth.

"This will probably hurt a bit, but since you're playing tough guy…" Gary trailed off as he poured a clear liquid onto Ash's hand. Ash let out a hiss and tried pulling his hand away, Gary kept a hold on it. After most of the pain had subsided, Ash began to remember another time from early childhood where he fell of his bike and Gary came to help a cut he got on his knee. _He was kind and gentle back then… I don't know what happened. Though he hasn't been too hard on me for a while, I know he still holds a grudge against me._

Ash was continuing to day dream, Gary was finishing wrapping up his hand. He put his glove back on and Ash admitted to feeling much better. Before he could say thank you, Gary stood up and put everything back into his backpack and crawled into his sleeping bag. Gary used his backpack as a pillow, and leaned back onto it, "You're welcome." He muttered. Ash didn't bother to over analyze the situation, and crawled into his sleeping bag too. Both of them let the crackling fire do the talking, Pikachu climbed on top of Ash to get comfortable.

Ash yawned, it had been a long day and they had a long day ahead of them tomorrow as well. The fire was soothing, Ash looked at Gary who was turned onto his side away from him, it looked like he had already fallen asleep. _Just like usual, I suppose._

Pikachu was next to doze off, Ash patted his partner. He put his good hand behind his head, Ash felt like he wanted to talk more. Gary had seemed to lighten up slightly today, it would have made him happy if they could chat in front of the fire like old friends. He looked over at Gary once more who didn't stir, he sighed.

"Goodnight, Gary."

Gary had not fallen asleep yet, though facing away from Ash his eyes remained open as he stared at the grass in front of him. He wanted to say goodnight back, but shook it off and closed his eyes.

During the night, Gary had shifted in his sleep and ended up unknowingly lying closer to Ash. Gary turned his head, his hair tickled Ash's arm that was lying out on the grass. Ash stirred in his sleep and woke up, feeling groggy. He noticed Gary's head was almost on his arm, Ash felt content and smiled, he shifted to get a little closer to Gary. He rested his head just above his rival's and closed his eyes, "Goodnight again, Gary." Ash said quietly.

**Hope you all enjoyed! Let me know what you thought ^_^ **


	7. Sweet Scents and Bitter Friendships

Chapter 7 - "Sweet Scents and Bitter Friendships"

The sun shone brightly in the early morning, the birds were chirping and Gary Oak still remained asleep. His arms were stretched far to each side, his body was feeling hot now as the sun was shining directly on him. Morning dew dripped off a green leaf above Gary and landed on his nose, he stirred in his sleep then reluctantly opened his eyes slowly. He shut them immediately from the sun's rays, Gary tried going back to sleep. It seemed a lot easier than normal this morning, why was it so different? Gary thought to himself, and just before he was about to fall back asleep he sprang up from his sleeping bag, "Ash!"

Gary looked around the campsite, nothing of Ash's was seen, the sound of snoring was not to be heard this morning. He tried to calm down and think, _Ash wouldn't leave without me, he's been so stubborn not to go back to Pallet._

Gary clenched a fist and looked around the campsite one more time, just then, his poketch began ringing in his backpack. Gary was startled, but reached into his backpack and pulled out the poketch, he blinked, "Grandpa?"

"Hi Gary, how are you doing? I haven't heard from you in a while so I thought I'd call, is everything alright?"

Gary scratched his head, "Um, yeah grandpa everything is going well. We should be to Snowpoint within a couple of days."

"That's my boy, I knew sending the both of you was a good choice. Speaking of which, where's Ash?"

Gary froze, "Uh, jogging with Pikachu." _No! _Gary thought as he slapped himself mentally.

"Jogging? Isn't Ash one to sleep in late?"

"Yeah, well… we've been on the go so much I guess it's rubbed off on him." Gary said fake smiling while holding his hand behind his head

"Hmm, well alright. I'd like to talk to him the next time you guys have a chance. By the way Gary, are you just waking up?" The Professor said staring down his set his grandson.

Gary set his hand down and stared back at Professor Oak, "Yeah… why?"

"It's 9am. That's awfully late for you, isn't it?" Gary was shocked.

"9am!?"

Professor Oak closed his eyes and hummed to himself, "When late to travel, you had better skedaddle."

Gary rushed out of his sleeping bag, "Not now grandpa!" Gary tripped over his pants and landed with a loud thud. "I'm sorry gramps, but I really need to get going."

"I can see that," smiled the pokemon researcher. "Keep in contact more, Gary. The road will get rough soon, enjoy your journey!"

Gary nodded and turned off the poketch, he sighed, then remembered Ash was gone. _Ash! You'd better not have gotten eaten by a Pokemon. _Thoughts of his dimwitted rival being chased by large pokemon came to mind as Gary folded his sleeping bag and put it into his backpack. When everything was packed, he threw it over his shoulder and crushed the remaining pieces of wood and branches in the campfire with his foot.  
"Hey!" A familiar voice called out. Hearing the call Gary became unimpressed and took his foot off of the burned wood, he looked into the direction to where the voice was coming from. It was Ash with Pikachu riding on his shoulder, he had a large grin across his face. He ran up to Gary and tried catching his breath for a moment.

Gary stared sternly and the black haired boy, "Where _were_ you?"

"I thought it'd be a good idea to find any extra food for the rest of the trip this morning." Ash threw his backpack onto the ground and opened up the top zipper, he showed Gary the berries and few different kinds of fruit he had collected.

"Pikachu and I got up early this morning and have been looking ever since."

Gary didn't say a word, he continued to stare Ash down. Ash blinked, "Is… something wrong?"

"Hmph, do you know we were _both _supposed to be up earlier this morning? You know, at _7am."_ Gary's expression had not changed since the other boy ran up to him.

Ash scratched his chin with a finger, "Well, I just thought you'd want to get a bit more rest this morning. You looked really tired when I got up."

Gary's mouth dropped open, "Ugh! Tired? That's what people look like when they sleep, Ash! They look _tired_ because they're _sleeping!_"

Ash felt extremely insulted even though he knew Gary wanted to be up early this morning. He closed his eyes and looked away from Gary who seemed as if he was about to yell at him again. Ash had been with Pikachu picking berries and fruit all morning, he left Gary sleeping so his rival could feel more rested, and this is how he gets treated? He stared at his backpack full of newly picked berries, then something came over Ash. He stepped forward, "I was only trying to look out for you! Maybe you shouldn't pick up my bad habits of sleeping in and yell at me for it!" Gary blinked and lowered his fists he had raised into the air while shouting at his old friend, "Pikachu and I worked hard this morning to get _us_ some extra food! You shouldn't be yelling at me just because we're a few hours late to start!"

Ash stamped his feet as walked up behind Gary and opened his backpack, "Hey!" Gary shouted, "What are you doing?"

Ash pulled out the map Gary had been immersed in throughout most of the journey, "Pikachu and I are going to Floroma City, are you coming?"

Ash began walking into the Floroma's direction, Gary just stood in shock that Ash just reacted that way toward him. Normally Ash would only give weak insults, but this time it appeared that he was truly angry at his spikey haired rival. Ash was almost out of sight when Gary finally started following him and Pikachu.

When Gary caught up to Ash, no words were exchanged as both boys were purposely ignoring each other.

"Chu," it said lowering it's ears.

The first thirty minutes were spent pretending to look at the scenery they were walking by, both of the rivals felt awkward. Ash was beginning to feel guilty, it wasn't in his nature to treat his friends, even Gary, like he had done earlier.

Ash bit his lip and folded the map, he then looked over at Gary who was still pretending to look at the passing trees. He stared at his moving feet before speaking up, "Gary, I…"

Gary kept his head in place as his eyes looked over at Ash, "Gary, I'm sorry." Ash muttered as he held the map in front of Gary. The purple clothed boy put both hands over his head and continued walking, trying to pretend he didn't hear Ash's apology. Gary couldn't keep it up for long, he snatched the map from Ash and slid it into his open zipper. "Hmph," he said quietly.

Ash kept his head down as the two continued down the road, then a sweet smell swept by them. Ash lifted up his head to get a whiff of the scent, "Hey, smell that?"

Gary wasn't in the mood to reply with a witty comment, he continued looking at the trees, though he could easily smell what Ash was talking about. "We must be getting close to Floroma, I wonder what it's like there since each city here is so unique."

Gary looked over at Ash who still had his head up to smell the air, "Can't you already tell?" Ash had a confused look on his face.

Ash and Gary were almost to the entrance of Floroma when Ash noticed something red in the bushes, he stopped and stared. Gary continued walking but didn't hear a second pair of footsteps, he turned around and looked back at Ash who was bent over almost sticking his head all of the way into the bushes. Gary rolled his eyes, "What are you doing? Let's get going, we're almost there."

Ash didn't respond and parted the bushes to walk in further, then he and Gary both saw that flash of red again.

"There it is!" Ash pointed. In the area that they were in, Gary immediately knew what it is and grabbed the back of Ash's collar and yanked him and Pikachu onto the ground. Ash rubbed his back and looked up at his rival, "What's wrong?"

"Stay away from that side of the road, Ash. That was a Vileplume you had almost provoked." Ash and Gary could both hear rustling in the bushes, Gary backed up a few steps. "Those petals on that Vileplume looked big," Gary began. "It was probably of high level, why dive into situations so quickly without thinking, Ash? You could have been hit with stun spore, and then what?"

Ash muttered a couple words before speaking up, "Well, there are plants are all around that cure stun spore if you mix them together." Ash kicked the dirt on the road as he was unsure of what he just said.

Gary put his hands on his hips and leaned forward, "And what kind of plants cure which, Ash?"

Pikachu looked at it's partner, "Uh, well…"

"You don't know, do you?" There was only silence, "Just as I thought, you _don't _know." Gary lifted a finger up into the air, "If you had a grandpa as a professor you'd know that yellow plants cure paralysis, red cures poison, green is for healing, blue cures…"

The rest of Gary's explanation was drowned out as Ash just felt embarrassed in front of his rival, when he heard Gary finally stopped talking he looked up.

"How do you expect to become a pokemon master if you don't even know what these simple things are for important situations?"

Before Ash could open his mouth, the sound of a bike bell was heard. Both of the boys turned around and were passed by two young girls on their bicycles, heading down the road to Floroma.

"Let's go, " Gary said as he began walking again.

When they both reached the front entrance they saw a tall windmill to the far side of the city, Ash and Gary then walked into Floroma. There were fields of flowers and people carrying baskets of flowers all around the town. Gary walked calmly through town with his hands in his pockets as Ash covered his hat halfway over his face, he was blushing by the amount of pretty girls passing by with the sweet smell of flowers.

"Chaaa," it smiled happily as it waved to everyone.

Gary saw Ash had his hat pulled over, he closed his eyes and grinned, "We won't be here for too long."

The girls passing by were all waving to both boys, Gary ignored them as Ash raised a weak right hand to wave back.

After fifteen minutes of strolling through town Gary felt that they didn't need anything, if they needed to eat they already had food in their backpacks, and Gary had previously stocked up on any other needed supplies.

"Anything special you need to do here, Ash?"

"Uh, I guess not."

"Then let's get out of here and onto route 204."

It was a very feminine town, Ash didn't mind leaving right away. If Gary thinks that they didn't need anything then it was probably true.

They passed through the exit of Floroma, "We'll be nearing Eterna Forest soon."

Ash looked ahead and could see the vast amount of trees covering the land in the far off distance.

"No problem, " he smiled.

It was one of the area's Gary had been dreading the entire journey, he wanted to get through the forest as quick as possible. A while after clearing the exit through Floroma, both boys came up to an area Gary had not been expecting to get through, a gap between the land and an old rickety bridge he and Ash were going to have to cross over.

Ash stared ahead with his mouth hanging open, "This wasn't on the map or poketch, was it?" Ash held his arm looked nervously.

Gary looked straight across the bridge, "No…" He saw an old wooden sign placed in the ground reading "Eterna City" with an arrow pointing into the direction of the bridge.

Gary twirled his pendant between his fingers thinking to himself, then walked straight ahead. Ash was shocked, "Gary! Wait, hold on! You aren't going to cross that, are you?"

Gary looked back and snapped at Ash, "What do you think I'm doing?"

He slowly put his boot forward and onto the rickety bridge, it immediately broke and Gary's foot fell through the wood. Ash ran up to him but Gary had already pulled his foot back through.

He didn't want to turn around now, even with the possibility of a longer route around. Gary thought to himself for a moment, then set his backpack onto the ground and pulled out a rope. He tossed it to Ash and kept the the other end and tied it around his waist, "Tie that around you, Ash."

Ash went pale, "What?"

"Come on," Gary said with one hand on his hip.

Ash felt nervous as the rope and his hands were shaking, he slowly and reluctantly tied it around him and walked up to Gary, "Al-alright…"

Gary patted Ash on the back, "Good, now if one of us falls through we'll have a safety net."

Gary was about to step forward again, "Wait!" Ash shouted.

Gary watched as Ash put Pikachu into his backpack and made it so the yellow mouse's head could stick through the small opening. Ash then nodded at Gary and the two of them began walking slowly over the bridge, it creaked loudly causing Ash to wince every time he heard the sound.

Gary gripped both sides of the rope handles on the bridge tightly, pieces of old wood fell from bottom and into the rushing river beneath them. He gulped and steadily continued across with Ash following close behind. They reached the center of the bridge when Ash began to feel dizzy, Gary shouted at him to get him to snap out of it. He yanked on the rope to try to pull Ash who was now frozen in place, "Ash, come on!"

Ash was shaking, but the sound of Gary's voice gave him the confindence he needed to get going again. After taking a couple paces toward Gary, the creaking became louder, and Gary's face also became pale as he heard the sound of a snap and saw the beginning of the bridge fall behind Ash. "RUN!" Gary shouted as loud as he could.

Ash didn't look back and began running after Gary, but his rival was too fast. Ash was dragging behind Gary and they could both feel themselves sinking lower as the bridge broke apart behind them, Gary was first to near the end but was tugged harshly by the rope. He turned around and saw Ash quickly climbing out of a hole his foot had broken through, when Ash caught up to Gary they both jumped to the other side, they could hear the snapping and crumbling of the bridge.

Gary knew they weren't going to make it in their jump, he saw large branches sticking out where trees were growing on the side of the cliff and grabbed a hold of one tightly. He looked below and saw Ash falling just beneath him, he stretched out his arm and grabbed a hold of his hand. A sharp pain shot through his arm as Ash's weight pulled on it tightly, Gary gasped, but he wasn't about to let go. He looked down at the rope between him and Ash, _I knew it, _Gary thought. The rope had began to fray from when Ash's foot fell through the bridge before they jumped.

Ash was looking down at the bridge's remains as it sunk into the water below. Gary kept his grip on Ash's hand, he knew that if he let go now Ash wouldn't have very long before the rope between them would snap. Gary looked up, the edge was just above him, but he didn't know how to get to the top. Ash set his eyes on Gary above him, he could tell he was in pain. Ash tried to look around on the side of cliff for something to hold onto, he saw a few large protruding rocks. They looked unstable, but if he could hold onto them while Gary climbed up, it would give his rival enough time to get up to safety then help himself up afterwards.

"Gary!" Ash called out.

Gary was out of breath, but looked down at Ash.

"Climb up, I'll hold onto these rocks here!"

"Ash-" Gary began.

Ash growled, "Just do it, Gary!" He shouted as he put one hand onto the rocks sticking out. Gary didn't want to let go, but then Ash felt the loss of Gary's grip and saw that he was beginning to climb to the top. Ash now put both hands onto the rocks, Gary scrambled to climb to the top. He put one hand over the top edge, then a second, taking a quick moment to catch his breath. Then he struggled as he pulled himself over the edge and onto land, panting heavily Gary stood up.

Ash's hands shook as he remained holding onto the rocks, then in a split second they cracked and broke out of the cliff. Before getting back to the edge Gary gasped as he saw the loose rope tighten, it yanked him and Gary landed on his back and skidded across the dirt.

"Gary, help!" Ash called out as he began to fall.

Gary slid feet first toward the edge but pushed his feet onto the tree trunk that was growing out of the cliff side, he wrapped the rope around his wrists and pulled as hard Gary Oak could.

Ash was suspended over the rushing river as only the breaking rope in between them held him up. Gary knew he didn't have much time and tried quickly to pull his old friend up, Ash was in shock that he had not fallen into the water. He felt himself being pulled up, when he reached Gary's old position he grabbed onto a branch and did his best at climbing to the top.

Pikachu was hiding in fear in Ash's backpack as he put his two hands on land finally, he saw Gary with his feet against the tree trunk and face bright red from over exerting himself. Luck was in both of the boys favor as the rope managed to hang on while Ash got over the cliff. He stumbled onto his stomach breathing heavily, Gary fell onto his back as he too was breathing in hard.

Ash looked over at his rival, "Are… are you alright, Gary?" He managed to get out.

"Yeah…" Gary said, but Ash could hear the pain in his voice. He knew his shoulder was bothering him.

Ash was first to recuperate, Pikachu jumped out of his backpack and waddled over to Gary.

"Pika…" it said looking back at Ash with it's paw on Gary's head. Gary gently moved it away and sat up, "I'm alright now. That sure was a close one." Gary said looking at the ground.

"Yeah, I guess I know better than to listen to you from now on." Ash said jokingly.

Gary only smirked and stood up, his arm was still stinging in pain, but he didn't believe it to be anything serious.

Ash and Gary gathered themselves, took a drink of water from their water bottles and began continuing along the path. Gary remembered they still had Eterna Forest to go through, he sighed as he rubbed his shoulder.

After an hour passed the boys sat down to take a short rest, Ash hovered the water bottle in front of his face, "Thanks, Gary. For saving me… again." Ash said quietly looking away from his rival who was leaned against a boulder.

"Yeah, whatever…" Gary replied with arms crossed.

Ash swirled the water in his bottle for a few minutes before Gary spoke up again, "Let me know when you're ready."

Ash looked up at him, "You mean you're not rushing to get to Eterna?"

Gary didn't respond, he continued looking squirted a little water on Pikachu, "That cool you off, buddy?"

"Pika!" It jumped happily.

"Alright," Gary got off of the rock. "Let's go," he said looking at Ash. Pikachu hopped on Ash's shoulder as the two headed toward the forest. It was a sunny afternoon, but it appeared to be getting darker as they got closer to the forest entrance.

Ash crossed his arms and rubbed his shoulders up and down, "It feels like night here."

"Yeah, this is where it's going to get a lot tougher, Ash. Just stay alert and we should be alright."

As they approached the forest Ash had a strange feeling before entering, he didn't want to bring it up to Gary since they had gotten this far now. Ash looked side to side, but bumped into Gary who had stopped, he was looking up into a tall tree. Gary squinted his eyes and stared into the branch bushes.

"What are you looking at Gary?"

All of a sudden, a large Honchkrow swooped down straight towards Gary, he flailed his arms as he was knocked over. "Honch!" It shrieked loudly as it flew off.

Gary scratched his head wondering what had just happened, Ash stared down at his rival, then let out a small giggle. He then covered his hand over his mouth and another hand over his stomach as he began laughing hysterically. Ash knew it wasn't _that_ funny, but after all of the mistakes and bad run in's with previous pokemon, it was amusing to see Gary in a similar situation.

Gary knew that the laughter was contagious, and instead of turning around to give Ash a death glare, he chuckled a bit too as he lifted himself up.

"Are you done?" Gary asked brushing himself off.

"Hehe…" Ash laughed as he followed Gary into the forest.

There were so many trees covering them in Eterna Forest that it seemed like evening, Ash kept a cautious watch around him and his rival. Gary came up to a large tree and looked at the trunk, there were massive claw marks across it.

Gary felt the tree trunk, "Ursaring are in the area, Ash."

Ash tugged at his collar, "Ursaring? Wah…" Ash trailed off as he saw the large claw marks along the tree Gary was touching.

_What's Gary going to think when he finds out I only brought Pikachu with me…_

A small figure appeared behind Gary, Ash caught a quick glimpse of a Duskull. Gary noticed that Ash seemed to be looking at him funny, "What is wrong with you?" Gary said taking his hand off of the tree and walking off.

Ash's skin began to crawl, he didn't like seeing any ghosts, pokemon or human. Ash walked behind Gary, who was also keeping a close eye out for any dangerous pokemon. The Duskull appeared again, this time in front of Ash, "Ahh!" Ash shouted.

The Duskull disappeared as Gary turned around to look at the helpless boy, Ash saw that Gary was staring at him. "It was a ghost," Ash said.

"A Duskull, right?"

"Y-yeah…"

"Don't worry about those, there are worse things in this forest."

Gary continued on ahead, "Great." Ash muttered.

A few minutes after the ghost pokemon incident, an earthquake ripped through the forest knocking both of the boys over. Gary hovered his hand over his pokeball belt, Ash readied himself with Pikachu. Two Lairon appeared out of the bushes, Ash wanted to gain control of the situation quickly, "Pikachu! Iron tail!"

"Pika pika!" One of the Lairon charged head on at Pikachu sending the mouse pokemon back to Ash's feet. "Pikachu!"

"Nidoqueen I choose you!" Nidoqueen appeared out of it's poke ball. The two Lairon roared, "Ash, use a different pokemon! Pikachu isn't going to work!"

"I…"

The Lairon charged, "Come on, Ash!"

"I only have Pikachu!"

"What!? Ugh." Gary growled.

"Arcanine I choose you!"

"Arrr!"

"Nidoqueen, double kick! Arcanine, hit it with your flamethrower attack!"

A burst of flame severly burned one of the Lairon, immobilizing it. The other Lairon charged at Gary, but was sent flying by Nidoqueen's double kick. Both of the Lairon were weakened and ran off back into the bushes.

Gary didn't waste any time to lecture Ash, "You only brought Pikachu?"

Pikachu recuperated and was sitting in Ash's arms, "Yeah, I thought it'd be a good chance to strengthen Pikachu and I if I only brought it along like old times."

"Do you have any idea the trouble we'd be in if we ran into anything worse? And you just charge in with your Pikachu against a rock and steel type pokemon, two of them!"

"Pikachu and I have fought worse!"

"So typical, Ash, A reckless pokemon trainer who has no idea what they're doing. No wonder you lost in the pokemon league, if your Charizard had a trainer like me it would've had no problem defeating that Blaziken." Gary said crossing his arms and lifting up his nose into the air.

"I beat you in the silver conference! Isn't that good enough proof that I can be just as good, if not better than you?"

Gary tilted his head and grinned at Ash, "Oh yeah, you're clumsey, reckless, and pretty much a bonehead. Great qualities for a pokemon master you say you want to be."

Ash growled loudly, "Ahh! I'm a better trainer than you!" Ash sshouted as he shoved Gary to the ground. Gary looked up at him, "I may not be an all-star trainer like you think _you_ are, but at least I don't hold grudges against my friends! Though…" Ash trailed off, Gary blinked.

"Though I shouldn't even consider you my friend with the way you treat me." Ash said as he held his head down.

Gary looked hurt, but he tried to hide it as best he could. He stood up, "Friends don't push each other either." Gary said purposely looking away from Ash.

"Yeah. Whatever, Gary." Ash said quietly.

Over in the bushes, Team Rocket had been hiding behind the brush listening in to the boy's conversation. "This is the perfect time to strike the twirps!" Said Jesse."You're right, let's go! Time for Team Rocket plan destruction!"

"Let's break out dat secret weapon!" Meowth shouted.

A roar louder than the previous earthquake shook the forest, from where Team Rocket hid the bushes the trees broke and fell over. Ash and Gary turned around quickly, "What's going on!?" Gary yelled.

Ash gritted his teeth as he saw what came out of the forest trees behind them, "Team Rocket!"

** Let me know what you think so far ^_^ Hope you all enjoyed **


	8. Team Rocket Attacks!

Chapter 8 - "Team Rocket Attacks!"

"Team Rocket!"

"What is that thing?" Gary gasped.

"Another one of Team Rocket's machines! They're going to try to capture Pikachu!"

Team Rocket's large shimmering Lairon tank emerged from the forest trees knocking everything down in it's path. Jesse's voiced echoed through their microphone, "To protect the world from-"

"Ash! Let's get out of here!"

"Hey! Don't interrupt our motto!"

Ash clenched his fists, "Not just yet." He grinned, he had seen Team Rocket attempt to capture Pikachu numerous times. It all appeared to be so easy to blast them off again.

"Pikachu, thunderbolt!" Pikachu jumped off of Ash's shoulder and into the air, "Piii…ka…chuu!"

A blast of electricity shot through the forest at Team Rocket's Lairon tank, but nothing happened. Gary watched as the electricity bounced off of the tank's surface.

Jesse let out a high pitched laugh, "Nice try! This tank is Pikachu proof, you should have known that," she said waving her finger back and forth.

"Now, after them!" James and Meowth began to pedal faster along with Jesse.

"Come on, Ash!" Gary ran off into the opposite direction of Team Rocket as Ash followed closely behind, angry that Pikachu's attack didn't work on the roaring of the tank could be heard behind them as the two boys dashed through the brush and trees; Gary leaped over a fallen log, Ash was paying more attention to what was behind him and tripped. Gary heard his rival fall and rushed back to help him up quickly, he looked behind Ash and saw one by one trees were being trampled and falling on top of each other as Team Rocket bulldozed through the forest after them.

Ash put Pikachu in his arms and began running again, making sure to watch his step this time.

"Activate the claw!" Ordered Jesse.

A large claw ejected out of the tank and stretched itself toward Ash and Pikachu. Gary looked behind him, "Ash! Look out!"

The claw grabbed Ash who still kept a tight hold on Pikachu, holding it close to his chest. The claw raised the boy into the air and Ash struggled to break loose; Gary stopped running and looked up helplessly at him.

Another claw ejected out of the tank and grabbed Pikachu, the other dropped Ash to the ground; he stood up quickly and shouted, "Pikachu!"

Pikachu attempted to use thunderbolt attacks, but it was futile; Gary risked getting his pokemon captured, but sent out two members of his team.

"Blastoise! Nidoqueen, go!"

"What's this twirp doing?" Questioned James.

"Your tank might be Pikachu proof, but we'll see if it can stand up against _my_ pokemon! Blastoise, hydro pump! Nidoqueen, body slam!"

Blastoise prepared a hydro pump attack as Nidoqueen jumped into the air and landed on top of the claw's extension breaking it into pieces; James let out a girlish fell through the air, but was caught by Ash who made a dive for his partner. Meowth growled, "Activate rock slide!"

Blastoise fired his cannons and collided with the rocks shooting out from the Lairon tank's mouth; Ash ran for cover behind Gary and hid Pikachu underneath his coat.

Jesse raised her arms into the air, "Argh, this isn't working! Just charge at them, full speed!"

The trio began pedaling and the Lairon tank charged at the two boys, "Not this time! Nidoqueen, hyper beam!"

"Aw? A hypa beam?" Meowth blinked.

A bright beam fired from Nidoqueen's mouth toward the tank, Jesse narrowed her eyes, "Not this time indeed! Team Rocket isn't going to be blasting off this time. Eject!"

The hyper beam hit causing the tank it to flip backwards as Team Rocket ejected out, ricocheting off of a tree and into Ash and Gary.

The tank exploded and all that could be seen was a cloud of smoke; the trio's eyes rolled in a daze, then began to slowly unbuckle their ejection seats. Ash and Gary were lying underneath them and shoved them off; when everyone became aware of their surroundings both sides stood up quickly and stared the other down.

"Give us that Pikachu!" James demanded.

Ash took a step back and held Pikachu close, "You're not getting Pikachu!"

Gary remembered seeing Team Rocket and their futile attempts to capture Pikachu in the past, he returned his pokemon to their poke balls.

"Give us! That! Pikachu!" Jesse shouted reaching for the mouse pokemon. At that moment, low growls were heard and sounded as if it was surrounding the group of pokemon trainers.

Pikachu's ears twitched as it looked around, Gary looked side to side trying to see through the smoke; he then saw a few dark figures emerging through the thick cloud. Jesse screamed and Meowth grabbed onto James.

"Ur-Ursaring!" James squeaked.

Ash gulped and remained speechless, everyone took a few steps back. The crowd of Ursaring roared and swiped at Team Rocket, then at Gary and Ash. They were larger than most Ursaring, Gary knew they were of high level along with the other pokemon in the forest.

"Run!" Gary shouted.

The group began running in the same direction, not worrying about the events that recently happened. The Ursaring stayed close behind them swiping their paws furiously, the group halted when they reached a steep hill in the forest that was covered in large rocks and brush.

Jesse bent over, "It doesn't look too far down."

"We aren't going to have a choice…" Gary trailed off.

"Pika!" The little mouse shouted jumping out of Ash's arms charging toward the Ursaring, it used a thunderbolt attack but the Ursaring were not phased by it.

"Pikachu, no!" Ash ran towards his partner and scooped him up, now standing in front of the engraged Ursaring.

"What's that twirp doin'!?" Meowth yelled.

It raised it's paw, Ash gasped and braced himself; he then felt a tight hold on his collar and was pulled backwards as the claw swiped at Ash barely missing his upper body. Ash fell backwards, he looked behind him and saw Gary letting go of his collar; Gary looked down at him not with the usual annoyed look on his face, but with a worried expression for his rival. Ash could feel Gary's concern, "Gary-" Ash was cut off as the ground underneath Gary and Team Rocket collapsed.

He grabbed a hold of Gary's hand and slid away from the Ursaring on the rough terrain, the group skidded and tumbled down the slope. Gary and Ash couldn't get any words to each as Gary began bouncing down the hill; Ash held Pikachu in his jacket with one arm, and Gary's hand in the other. He didn't want to let go of his rivals hand, he could see Team Rocket rolling down the hill faster without someone to hold onto. Ash gritted his teeth as he and Gary slid in circles; _don't let go, don't let go, don't-_

Ash gasped as he lost his grip on Gary's hand, his rival slid further away from him. Ash rolled a few times over the brush but got his balance back and skidded down the slope feet first. Gary tried to grab hold of anything he could, but all he could grab was weak roots that broke immediately after grasping them. There were large rocks up ahead and Gary knew he had to do _something_, he reached for his poke ball belt, but ended up hitting a large bush. Gary flipped over and started somersaulting down the hill, he slammed into the dirt; he kept seeing sky, ground, sky ground. He then felt a sharp pain shoot down his leg as he came to a halt; after the pebbles rolled by Gary looked and saw his leg stuck between two large rocks. Gary acted tough, but the pain was unbearable, he was facing down the mountain head first; he tried reaching for his leg but fell backwards onto his back again.

"Gary!" Ash called out from further down the mountain, Gary turned slightly and saw the other boy now sliding on his back with Pikachu on top of him.

"Ash…" Gary said weakly stretching out an arm. He then heard loud rumbling above him, he looked forward and saw the rocks from the top of the slope had began rolling down. Before Gary could say anything the rocks collided with the two others his leg was wedged between and lodged it loose, Gary began sliding down the mountain again alongside the large rocks, then everything went black.

***

Murkrow flew across the sky and squawked loudly, Ash felt as if he was being tickled.

"Pi…" A familiar sound ringed through his ears.

He moved his head slightly, he then felt the tickling again; Ash started to giggle in his sleep.

"Piiika…" Ash grumbled to himself, then slowly opened his eyes and was face to face with Pikachu.

"P-Pikachu?" Ash said quietly. Ash was at the bottom of the slope, Pikachu had been poking him in the side to wake him up. Ash looked on top of him, he was covered with small pebbles and branches; he brushed it off of himself and sat up and put his hand on his head, "Ugh, are you alright Pikachu?"

Pikachu rubbed it's head, "Pi-pikachu," it replied.

Ash sat for a few moments trying to remember what had just happened, "The Ursaring! Team Rocket… Gary!"

Ash began to panic as he looked at his surroundings, they seemed to be in a lighter part of the forest, though it was now night time; the moon shined brightly down at Ash and Pikachu.

"Pikachu, we need to find Gary and Team Rocket!" Before Ash started his search, he felt to see if he was injured. He could feel tenderness in his arms and legs, as well as a few small cuts on his hands and arms, but he realized that he was alright. Ash breathed out slowly, "Well, I'm okay. Let's start searching."

Ash took one step and heard a crack, he looked down and saw a broken pokedex. _Professor Oak's pokedex's…_ Ash then noticed there were a few other battered pokedex's scattered at the bottom of the hill, but Ash had more important matters to worry about. He rushed over to where the brush and broken branches lay at the bottom, he lifted them up in hopes of finding Gary and Team Rocket. It didn't take Ash long to walk over the talking cat pokemon, "Urgh, watch where ya goin'!"

"Meowth? Are you alright? Where's Jesse and James?"

"I wish I could answer that for ya kid." Meowth said adjusting his yellow gem; Ash brushed the rest of the debris away from Meowth and the cat pokemon stood up.

"Jesse! James! Can ya hear me?"

Ash walked away from Meowth and continued his search, "Hey, wait up kid!"

After a few more minutes of searching, Ash, Pikachu, and Meowth finally came across Jesse. She got up on her own and eyed Ash down, she still wanted Pikachu, but she had to find James first. Ash was annoyed Jesse was still after his pokemon after what they had been through and the situation they were in now.

Ash fiddled with his collar nervously, remembering that Gary could be seriously hurt. _What if we can't find Gary?_

Pikachu noticed Ash had stopped, "Pika-pi?"

_No, I'm not going to think like that. Gary! I'm going to find you!_

"James!" Jesse squealed, "James?"

Jesse brushed the debris off of her partner, James's forhead was bloodied and had Jesse and Meowth worried. "James? Come on, wake up." She said gently shaking him.

"Jesse, he ain't wakin' up." Meowth said looking worried.

Ash looked ahead of him and saw Jesse and Meowth kneeling down toward James, he was knocked out cold. _I can use the first aid kit and-_

Ash then noticed his backpack was gone, which had fallen off during the landslide; he felt frustrated that he couldn't help, but walked over to Team Rocket. "Jesse," Ash began. Jesse looked back at the short boy, her eyes were watery and Ash could see the hurt look in her eyes. He looked away, "I can help you move James onto the grass, then we can see how we can help him," Ash took a step forward. "Okay?"Jesse nodded, Meowth and Pikachu worked at removing the fallen debris out of the area. Ash and Jesse picked up James and moved him onto the green forest grass, Jesse looked at her injured partner.

"I need to find Gary," Ash stated.

Meowth walked up, "Stay here, Jess. I'll go help look."

Jesse didn't respond and began ripping her outter coat, Ash and the other two pokemon walked off in search for Gary. Ash felt he sifted through all of the debris; after tossing a large branch to the side Ash heard a light moan. His head shot up and looked around, "Gary…?"

Meowth and Pikachu heard it too, and began walking further along the line of fallen debris, Ash saw Pikachu trip in front of him.

"Pi?" It brushed the bushes and sticks away, "Pikachu!"

Ash rushed over, "Gary?" He kneeled down to where Pikachu and Meowth were, "Gary!"

*** Thanks for the new reviews! Chapter 9 should up soon, hope you're all enjoying ^^ ***


	9. They Lurk In the Darkness

**Hello everyone! Thanks for the reviews so far, I guess I forgot to clarify if the story involves romance or just friendship. Well, it was meant to be only friendship, and I think I'm going to keep it that way. I changed the description once or twice only because of the hand holding in one of the chapters involving the dark cave XD I like to try to keep everyone in character.**

**Sorry about the long update, I usually work on short stories and this fanfic on the weekends. The last couple of days though I've been addicted to playing Pokemon Platinum XD And went camping.**

**Also, for anyone who's interested, I made an AshxGary video for my story. I don't have any clips from the show on my laptop unfortunately, so I hope no one minds a slideshow ^^**

The video link is posted onto my profile, enjoy!

Chapter 9 - "They Lurk In the Darkness"

Gary groaned as Ash, Pikachu and Meowth threw away the debris on top of the spikey haired boy. Ash was speechless when he saw the condition Gary was in, his image of his rival was confident, cocky and strong; now, Gary looked weak and helpless. His green eyes looked up at Ash, "Ash…" Gary weakly said. "Are you okay?"

Ash was touched, even though Gary was hurt the first words that came out of his mouth were to ask if _he _was okay. "Pika-pi, pikachu," the yellow mouse was worried.

"I know, he ain't lookin' too good."

Gary shut his eyes and looked away from Ash, he was taking in sharp painful breathes; Ash wanted to find out immediately where the source of Gary's pain was coming from. Other than looking to be a little scratched up, the top half of Gary's body appeared to be fine; like Ash, his clothes were torn slightly but in good condition. Ash lifted his hand off of the ground to switch positions, he then noticed that his palm was covered in blood; he gasped when he saw the colour of red. Positioning himself better in the moonlight, Ash looked down at Gary's leg, it too was covered in blood; he didn't know what to do, he didn't want to hurt Gary any more but he had to see if it was broken or not.

"Gary," Ash said hesitantly.

Gary opened his eyes halfway, "Your leg, it looks pretty beat up, do you remember at all what happened?"

Gary looked straight ahead of him and paused for a moment, "It got caught in between two rocks as I was falling."

Ash winced as he pictured it in his mind, then took a deep breath, "Gary, I need to see if it's broken."

He heard Ash, but did not respond to him; he wanted to remain strong. Pikachu and Meowth had been watching in silence, they looked away when they saw Ash's arm reach out to Gary's leg. Only a finger was able to touch before Gary unwillingly cried out in pain; Ash almost fainted.

_Well, at least we know now._Ash watched as Gary began breathing in heavily, "It…" Ash began, not wanting to disturb his rival again. "It doesn't hurt anywhere else, does it?"

Gary put his hand over his stomache, he and Ash both knew that he had either a broken rib or was injured internally, though none of them knew exactly. Ash wanted to move Gary away from the bottom of slope, the black haired boy from Pallet knew he had to become leader now if everyone were to make it out of the forest safely. He ordered Meowth and Pikachu to take one of Gary's shoulders as he took the other, "Okay guys, we're going to drag Gary over into the clearing in between Jesse and James and that tree over there."

"Pika," it nodded.

_Hold on, Gary…_In one lift, Ash and the two pokemon successfully carried Gary to the clearing on the grass; Ash tried to ignore the moaning from his rival.

Jesse looked over at the two boys, she was now feeling guilty on trying to capture Pikachu earlier; her and the rest of her team were trying to take away Ash's pokemon, and now he was on the verge of helping them. Jesse looked away when Ash caught her looking at him, he then went back to focusing on Gary; he started thinking, what would Gary do?

Ash snapped his fingers, "That's it! Pikachu, stay here with Gary."

"Pika…?" It said looking confused. The yellow pokemon watched as Ash ran over to another tree and pulled off a few branches, he snapped them with his knee and ran back to his partner and rival. Ash then kneeled down and carefully placed the broken branches against Gary's leg, he took off his blue jacket and tied it around the branches and wounded leg. Ash wiped his forehead, "Phew."

He could see Meowth had gone back to the bottom of the slope, it looked like the talking pokemon was searching around for any lost or broken items. Ash looked down at Gary who was now drifting in and out of conciousness, "Gary," he said as he shook the boy lightly on his shoulder. "Stay awake, okay?"

Gary only groaned in response, and Ash sat back on his knees; he then heard the cat pokemon call out, "Hey! What's dis thing?"

Meowth ran up in between Jesse and Ash, who looked curiously at the cat; Ash blinked, "That's Gary's poketch!"

Ash held out his hand and Meowth dropped it into his palm, it looked badly beaten but Ash was still able to turn it on. Immediately, Ash set up the poketch to call Professor Oak; he wasn't worried about his reaction, all Ash knew was that everyone needed to get out of here and fast. During the dialing there was a lot of static, everyone in the clearing had hopeful expressions on their face; when Ash heard Professor Oak greet him, a sudden urge came over him and he began blurting out everything that happened.

On the professor's end, Ash was cutting in and out, and was only getting a word or two before a second of static would cut in. "Professor!" *static* "Gary!" *static* "Injured* "Landslide!" *static*

"Ash, you keep cutting out on me."

"Eterna Forest!" Were the last two words Ash was able to shout to the professor before the poketch shut off completely. Pikachu's ear dropped, and Meowth and Jesse looked away disappointed.

"No!" Ash growled.

"Ash…" A familiar voice said.

Ash opened his eyes and looked down at Gary, "Everything is going to be okay…" Gary said forcing the words out of him. This part of the forest it was pitch black, and morning wasn't anywhere near; Ash believed that the best thing to do right now was to rest, and he'll figure out a plan in the morning.

Ash looked over at Jesse, "Let's rest for tonight, we'll figure out what we can do tomorrow."

Jesse nodded and changed positions to become more comfortable, Meowth walked over to her and James and sat down.

Ash sighed and leaned up against a tree, Pikachu sat down beside him; he noticed Gary didn't have anything to rest his head on, and Ash had already used his jacket on his leg. He stood up a moment and moved himself under Gary's head so the weakened boy could rest in his lap. Ash looked up at the sky through the trees, a cool breeze brushed through the area; he felt a stinging sensation, Gary was not the only one to receive cuts from the landslide. Pikachu began drifting off to sleep as Ash looked down at his rival, Gary was already asleep; or maybe worse, he had passed out from the pain. Ash looked around the forest, after everything had settled down it had a more eerie feeling to it; who knew what type of pokemon lurked in the dark at this time of night. Ash shivered, but felt himself getting more sleepy; his head dropped, but he snapped back awake again. Ash knew he had to rest, but was worried if anything else was going to attack them in the night; though before he knew it, he had fallen into a deep sleep.

~Morning~

In this part of the forest, there were no chirping birds as a wake up call, instead there was only silence. Pikachu turned onto it's side next to Ash causing his partner to droop his head lower. Jesse fell asleep next to James overnight, and Meowth was curled up into a ball; Ash moved himself back up against the tree and opened his eyes slowly. He started remembering what had happened the night before and began to panic for a moment, he looked down at Gary; his rival was still sleeping, but Ash knew he had figure out what the group was going to do.

Ash kept his head leaning against the tree as he thought to himself, he felt frustrated that he and Gary ended up in this situation, but Ash now had to take the lead. During the journey Gary had always been figuring out where to go, what to do, and how to do; it was now Ash's turn, with Gary's life in his hands. Realizing this, Ash felt determined, and vaguely remembered what Gary told him before Floroma about different type of herbs.

"That's right," Ash said to himself.

Hearing Ash's voice caused Gary to awaken, Pikachu awoke as well from the numerous movements; Gary ached all over and did not want to think about what it would feel like to eventually move around. Wasting no time, Ash carefully removed Gary's head from his lap and stood up.

"Wh-what are you doing, Ash?"

Raising a fist into the air with a smile, Ash looked down at Gary, "Those plants are the answer, Gary. I'm going to go find them."

Gary tried to sit up, but instantly laid back down in pain; Ash's expression went from cheerful to worry over his rival. Pikachu looked up at it's partner, "Pika!" It protested.

"No Pikachu, I want you to stay here with Gary. I also want you to make sure nothing happens to Team Rocket."

Hearing their team name in conversation, Jesse stretched and spoke up, "Where do you think you're going? You're not leaving us here, are you?"

"Jesse, I'm going to help James. I'll be back soon with the proper medicine, I need everyone else to stay here."

"Pika…" It said worrying over Ash.

"Don't worry Pikachu, I'll be fine."

Ash took one more look at Gary and Team Rocket, before he turned around he had almost forgotten what he was going to do. Ash walked up to Gary and kneeled down, he had a painful look in his eyes; Ash then reached down towards Gary's poke ball belt, "I'm going to take a few of your pokemon in case anything happens."

Gary nodded, he would have suggested it to Ash before he left anyway; Pikachu scooted closer to Gary. "I know you won't let anything happen to Gary, Pikachu."

"Pika!" It smiled.

Ash smiled and nodded, and finally he turned around and walked off into the dark forest; Gary felt down near his belt, he could still feel three poke balls attached.

_Good luck, Ash._~In the forest~

Ash made sure to watch his step and keep an eye out for any dangerous pokemon, out of all people he had to be the most unlucky with bad encounters. After thirty minutes of walking through the brush and underneath tall trees, Ash saw the green plant he was looking for.

"That's it!"

A ray of sunlight was beaming through the trees and onto the herb, Ash ran up to it with a big smile across his face. He pulled it out of the ground and placed it into his pocket, Ash sighed with relief; now he just needed one more. Ash thought that if there was one near, there must be more around; after a minute of scanning the area, he saw another green herb growing out of the ground underneath a large bush. Ash's fears were lifting as he picked the second herb; they both were large, and Ash assumed that this would be enough for now for the healing process.

As Ash stood up, he felt that he was being watched, and though he looked over his shoulders, he couldn't see anything. He stood frozen for a few more minutes until he was assured it was nothing; Ash took in a deep breath and began following his path back to the group.

Behind the black haired boy were bright red eyes shining in the bushes, more and more began to glow as Ash walked further away; the red eyes then disappeared.

~A few minutes before camp~

Ash thought that it was odd that he had not seen one pokemon during the full hour he was gone, he rubbed his shoulders up and down as an eerie feeling came over him. He could see the bright red colour of Jesse's hair and yellow of Pikachu's coat in the sunlight; Ash was relieved that he was finally able to provide medical care for his injured friends. Just before lifting up his hand to wave, Ash was tackled to the ground by a large black and grey pokemon; the wind was almost knocked out of him and Ash coughed a couple of times before turning his head to see what was on top of him.

It was a large Mightyena with it's fangs bared and growling at the boy, Ash's skin jumped and he tried to crawl away, but the Mightyena was too heavy. Ash reached for his poke ball belt and managed to throw out all three, Arcanine, Blastoise and Nidoqueen; studying the pokemon he had just thrown, Ash ordered for attacks immediately, "Arcanine, flamethrower! Nidoqueen, double-edge! Blastoise, water pulse!"

Pikachu heard the calls of Ash's voice, it perked up it's ears and saw Ash was pinned down by a Mightyena; it was about to run to help protect it's partner, but Pikachu looked down at Gary and remembered Ash wanted it to stay with him. Jesse and Meowth saw Ash far the distance as well, they both watched as Gary's three pokemon used their attacks all at once on the Mightyena. The black pokemon was thrown back against the tree and struggled to get up, it howled and more Mightyena appeared from the darkness. Ash quickly stood up and clenched his fists, "You're not getting any closer!"

Though Ash must have underestimated the amount of the Mightyena's that came out of the brush, he took a step back and ordered for the same attacks on the newly appeared pokemon. Arcanines flamethrower burned most of the Mightyena and Nidoqueen took down a couple more, Blastoise made sure the rest of the pokemon kept their distance with it's powerful water attack.

The Mightyena's didn't seem to be giving up, there were large amounts of dark pulses sent toward Ash and Gary's pokemon, it landed with loud blasts into the ground. Ash and Gary's team were beginning to be overwhelmed with the amount of Mightyena, and the same large one was headed straight toward Ash; it leaped over the three pokemon and was about to attack Ash, "Arbok! Weezing! Go!"

Weezing and Arbok came out of their poke balls, "Arbok! Glare! Weezing, sludge bomb!"

The Mightyena froze in midair by paralysis and was sent flying by Weezing's sludge bomb. Ash had his one arm over his head for cover, then when he felt that he wasn't attacked, he looked up; Jesse was standing beside him staring at the battle between the Mightyena and Gary's and Team Rocket's pokemon.

"Let's go, twirp," she said still keeping her eyes on the battle in front of jumped in, "Gahh! Meowth uses his scratch attaaaack!"

Ash didn't bother to reply and just smiled, they both ordered their pokemon for their biggest attacks, and one by one the Mightyena's began to retreat. The large Mightyena didn't bother to attack Ash again, and instead ran off into the darkness following it's pack. Gary had been watching from a distance and was impressed with the way Ash handled his pokemon, a small smirk went across his face as the rest of the Mightyena's disappeared back into the forest.

"Not bad for a kid," Jesse said in her way of complimenting Ash.

He scratched the back of his head and smiled, Gary's pokemon walked up to him, "Good work guys, you fought well!"

Jesse and Ash walked back to the others, Gary's pokemon followed as Jesse returned Team Rocket's to their poke balls. When Gary's pokemon saw their trainers condition they immediately ran up to him, Arcanine gently licked Gary's forehead causing the brown haired boy to close his eyes and smile. Blastoise and Nidoqueen stared down at him and looked saddened, "Blas…" It said.

"Don't worry, guys. I'll be okay soon, nothing can bring me down." Gary replied to his pokemon as he pet Arcanine. Ash stood over Gary and smiled, then remembered the herbs he collected; he walked over to the nearest large rock and took out the herbs, Ash then called Blastoise over and asked it to use a small water gun attack on the rock to dampen it. Then, Ash grabbed a nearby stick and began mixing the herbs and water together; Jesse and Meowth watched from a distance as Arcanine laid down beside Gary, Nidoqueen sat further out keeping an eye on any intruders from the forest.

After five minutes of mixing, Ash was finished; he took half of the mixture over to Jesse, she had slightly disgusted look on her face, "What am I supposed to do with this?"

Before Ash went back to the rock he looked back at Jesse, "It'll speed the healing process and prevent infection, put that underneath the bandage on James."

Jesse nodded and Ash walked around Blastoise to get to the rock, he took the remaining mixture and went over to Gary and kneeled down. Gary knew what Ash was going to do, and bit his lip when Ash lifted up the bottom of Gary's pant leg, Arcanine and Pikachu watched curiously. Ash knew Gary was in more pain as put the herbs on top of his injured leg, Gary kept looking away closing his eyes; Ash knew it was for the best, it may not cure a broken leg, but he won't have to worry about infection. When Ash finished Gary let out a heavy sigh, no words were exchanged between the two boys; Arcanine rested his head near Gary and Pikachu jumped onto Ash's shoulder when he sat down against the tree, the only thing everyone could do now was wait.

_We'll get out of here, Gary._


	10. My Rival, My Friend

**This is the final chapter of Rival Survival, so I hope you've all enjoyed! This was my first fanfic, and I plan on starting a new one very soon. Enjoy!**

Chapter 10 - "My Rival, My Friend"

It had been a long and stressful day, Ash had remained at Gary's side along with the rest of the pokemon. Jesse and Meowth had been watching over James, everyone waited to see if the herbs were working properly; Meowth and Pikachu had gone off in search for berries and any other food they might come across.

It was now late into the evening, Jesse was in a sitting position beside James, her head was on her hand as she dozed in and out of sleep. Gary laid on top of Ash's lap in between Arcanine and Pikachu, Ash had been watching his rival closely throughout the day, Gary had begun to feel feverish in the afternoon. Though it had seemed to subside, Ash wasn't going to take his eye off of him; it was getting colder as the forest grew darker and it kept Ash shivering, Pikachu tried to get closer to his partner to warm him up, but the small mouse pokemon wasn't able to give off the heat needed.

Ash tried to put his mind on other things other than the cold to attempt to warm up, he watched Meowth search around the area for any lost items and berries; Arcanine was in a deep sleep at the end of Gary's feet, it snored loudly and Ash could only laugh at the loud fire pokemon. Gary had been awake for the last hour, although his eyes were closed he had been looking back at the past events of their journey and childhood in his mind. He was feeling guilty and helpess, since the beginning of their pokemon journey he had gloated and continued to push Ash away when the only thing the black haired boy wanted was to be friends. He had been so mean to his old friend, _what if I hadn't made it through the landslide? More than half his memories of me would be bragging, insults, and telling him he's no good, even though… he is a good pokemon trainer._

Gary's mind trailed off, he began to feel that life was more precious and short, and anything could be taken away instantly. Gary growled outloud to himself, the noise caught Ash's attention and he looked down, "Gary?"

Gary snapped out of it and looked up at his friend, "Ash…"

Struggling and in pain, Gary managed to pull himself up into a sitting postion, "Gary! Wait, you aren't supposed to be moving around." Ash said with his arms stretched out, he didn't know whether to help the boy or order him to lay back down.

With the last bit of strength he had left, Gary moved himself up against the tree beside Ash, the other boy couldn't get any words out. Gary looked at him, he sighed heavily and spoke up, "Ash, I'm sorry."

Ash blinked twice, "Wh-what do you mean?"

"I always thought I was the better trainer, but there's still a lot that I don't know, Ash."

Ash noticed that there were small beads of sweat on the top of Gary's forehead, and saw the he was breathing heavily; Ash stretched out his hand, but it was blocked by Gary's arm. Ash put his eyes back onto Gary, "I thought our friendship was rebuilding itself, but ever since the Silver Conference I've been holding a grudge because you lost your match that I believed I could have won."

Ash felt angry, and he bit his lip and averted his eyes; Gary tilted his head, "But Ash," he began. The black haired boy looked back at him, "You deserved to reach that point in the competition; you defeated me, and even though I don't know what the outcome would have been if I were to have fought Harrison, you deserved it more than me."

A soft expression went across Ash's face and he smiled, "Ash, we're both strong trainers in our own respective ways, and I'm sorry for ever making you think otherwise."

Gary held out his hand, Ash looked down, he couldn't feel any happier in this moment, and proudly reached out his hand and shook Gary's. Neither of them said a word, their expressions said millions, and Gary released his grip and rested his head against the tree and closed his eyes; Ash sat for a moment before doing the same, they both wanted to enjoy the warm feeling they had.

Meowth was in the far corner of the clearing with his eyes tearing up, he sniffled, "Dat's so beautiful."

Near Jesse, a light mumbling sound was heard and James was beginning to awake from his deep sleep, he slowly opened his eyes and looked at Jesse was asleep sitting up.

"Jesse?"

Jesse awoke immediately and looked to her left and right before looking down, "James!?"

Meowth heard the familiar voice and quickly looked over toward Jesse and James, "James, you're okay!"

Gary and Ash looked ahead of them and were shocked to see James awake, "Jesse, what-"

Before James could say anything else, Jesse grabbed him into a bear hug and squeezed him tight, Meowth jumped on both of them, "James, I'm so glad you're alright!" She squealed.

"We were so worried about ya!"

Jesse stood up and let Meowth hug James, she walked over to Ash; Jesse had one hand on her hip and looked down the boy, "Twirp."

Ash smiled and nodded, knowing Jesse was thanking him; James noticed Jesse were standing near the two boys and their pokemon. "It's Pikachu! Jesse, let's get it!" James said struggling to stand up. Jesse looked back at him, "Not today, James," Jesse sighed. "He was the one that helped you."

Both groups stared at each other, a loud crash was then heard further in the forest, then another, and then another. "What's that…" James trailed off.

Roars were heard on top of the noises, then the group began to notice trees falling; everyone froze, but Ash spoke up, "We need to get out here, now!"

Ash was in a panic, he knew they wouldn't get very far very quickly, but it was also no good sitting here. The noises got closer and all of the trees were being torn down, everyone gasped when they saw the large group of Ursaring. The largest one roared so loudly it vibrated through everyone's chests, Ash wasn't going to let another group of Ursaring hurt any of his friends again. Arcanine, Blastoise, and Nidoqueen were ready to fight, but more and more Ursaring appeared out of the forest. They were severly outnumbered, and even with Jesse and James pokemon they weren't going to do very much to decrease the number of Urasring.

Ash clenched his fists, but took a step back as an Ursaring charged at him and Gary, Arcanine, Nidoqueen and Blastoise went to attack it. They were knocked down by the other large bear pokemon that came after them, Pikachu used it's thunderbolt on the incoming Ursaring, but it wasn't phased by the electric shock. It stampeded toward Ash and Gary, a flash of white light was then seen and Umbreon appeared out of it's poke ball.

"Breon!" A powerful dark pulse attack sent the charging bear flying into two other Ursaring.

"Umbreon?" Gary called to his looked back at him, then towards the bear pokemon, Umbreon 's other pokemon appeared out of it's poke ball, it was Scizor. Scizor and Umbreon stood their ground as more Ursaring charged, "Everyone! Attack!" Gary ordered weakily.

Ash looked down at Pikachu, "Pikachu, do your best!"

"Pika!" It nodded.

"Arbok! I choose you!"

James reached for his belt, "Weezing! I- huh?"

James didn't find Weezing's poke ball, "Sorry, James. Weezing! Go!" Jesse called out.

Meowth held Arbok and Weezing flags and twirled them in the air, "Let's go! Go Team Rocket pokemon!"

Ash stood near Gary, and Jesse stood near James, the battled raged on and Ursaring swatted and slashed fiercely at their opponent pokemon. Pikachu, Gary's and Team Rocket's pokemon fought strongly, but were outnumbered by the amount of Ursaring, it was only a matter of time before they would run out of strength.

"Keep fighting, Pikachu! Thunder attack!"

"Pika! Pii…ka…chuuu!"

A wild thunder attack struck down from the sky and immobilized half of the group of Ursaring, but they still kept coming.

"Ash, there's too many…"

Ash looked down at Gary, the trainer looked worried and Ash knew from the beginning that there were too many of them, but they had to fight. Umbreon was sent flying into Gary, he caught it and held Umbreon delicately, "Umbreon, are you alright?" He said softly.

"Breon…"

Arbok and Weezing were both hurled into Jesse, she screeched loudly as she fell down to the ground, her eyes in a daze. The rest of Gary's pokemon looked weak and were panting heavily, two Ursaring charged at Ash and Gary, knocking Gary's pokemon out of the way again.

Everything seemed to freeze as the teeth bearing, claw swiping bear pokemon charged at the two boys, Ash and Gary could only hear their breathing. Ash stood close beside his rival as they both prepared for impact, they shielded themselves with their arms and held their breath.

Tauros shot out behind the group and hurled the bear pokemon into the air, Ash heard his bull pokemon and quickly removed his arms, "Tauros?"

More Tauros stampeded down the hill behind them and charged toward the Ursaring, there was dust everywhere and the Ursaring were sent flying into the air. Team Rocket watched as the Tauros herd plowed around them and straight toward the bear pokemon.

"Ash!"

"Ash, honey!"

The last two Tauros were rode in by Professor Oak, Ash's mom and , "Mom? Mom! Professor!"

Gary looked over into the direction of Professor Oak, "Gr-Grandpa?"

Professor Oak went into shock when he saw the condition of his grandson, "Gary! What happened? Are you alright? Are you hurt?" Professor Oak slid off of the Tauros and kneeled beside his grandson.

Ash was grabbed and squeezed by his mom, "Oh, Ash! Are you okay?"

Ash opened his mouth, but it was muffled by his mom's shirt, he managed to break away from her grasp, "Mom, how did you get here? How did you find where we were?"

Professor Oak turned to Ash, "It was your message, Ash. All I needed to know is what area you were in, and you managed to say Eterna forest. And when you told me Gary was injured, I had to rush here as soon as possible. It was a day's boat ride, but once we arrived we met with a group of Officer Jenny. I've heard high level and dangerous pokemon lurk in this forest, so I made sure to transfer all of your Tauros you caught from the safari zone to Canalave City's pokemon center. We were then escorted here by Officer Jenny."Ash and Gary were trying to take everything in, they took a few moments to gather themselves, Ash then remembered Gary needed medical attention, "Professor, we need to get Gary to a hospital."

With all of the excitement, Gary had almost forgotten he was hurt, the pain creeped back into his leg and he winced; Professor Oak looked worried, he nodded at Ash and stood up.

Just then, a small group of Officer Jenny's and Growlithe's skidded down the hill, "Is everyone alright? What's this? Team Rocket!"

The trio jumped and held each other tight, the last remaining Ursaring ran away as the group of Tauros charged at it. "We didn't do nothin'!" Meowth said.

"You're under arrest!"

Ash chose to step in, "Officer Jenny, hold on.

"The police woman turned to Ash and had a confused look on her face, "This is Team Rocket, they have a list of crimes that they need to be arrested for."

"Team Rocket saved us earlier from a group of Mightyena, without them we might not be here right now. Please, Officer Jenny, can you let them go this time."

Officer Jenny looked back at Team Rocket, she sighed, "I guess the important thing here is to get everyone out of here safely. Alright everyone, we've got a few rescue vehicles waiting for us about ten minutes away from this area, let's get you guys out of this forest."

Ash saw two Officer Jenny's carrying a stretcher, they both prepared and moved Gary gently on to it. Ash was relieved to know he was going to be okay, seeing Gary laying on that stretcher with Professor Oak and his mom close by was what he needed right now after their long and dangerous adventure. Another Officer Jenny went over to check James, she escorted up to where Gary was being held on the stretcher.

"Honey, are you alright?"

"I am now, mom."

Officer Jenny and the other officers lead the way while carrying Gary, Professor Oak followed close behind and and Delia walked beside the herd of Tauros; Delia waved at Ash to follow and he began walking behind them, Jesse and Meowth came up behind Ash, they both mumbled, "Thanks for not letting the fuzz take us in, kid."

"Yeah, thank you for everything you've done. Team Rocket won't forget this." Meowth said tearing up.

Ash hurried up to get beside Gary, he saw that the other boy was in a daze, but managed to give a small smile at Ash. When they reached the rescue vehicles, Ash took one last look at the forest, it was unfortunate he and Gary had to mend their ways in the situation they were in, but better it happened at all then never; Ash climbed into the vehicle and everyone was ready for their long trip home.

~ The Ketchum House ~

It had been a few days since Ash and Gary arrived back to Pallet, Gary had been recovering in the hospital and was almost ready to leave. It was early morning and Ash was planning on visiting him, it was already 8:30 am and Ash was dressed, ready, and just finishing up breakfast.

Delia sighed happily at the kitchen table, "I'm so glad you're home safe, honey. It seems your journey has changed a few things in you, don't you think?"

Ash finished gobbling down his breakfast and Pikachu finished it's shiney red apple, "Yeah, mom. I gotta go!"

He immediately got up and darted out the door with Pikachu holding onto his shoulder, "Okay, honey. Have a good day! See you soon!"

"Bye, mom!"

Ash jogged all of the way to the hospital, he hadn't visited Gary since they arrived back home; he figured it was best to just let him rest for a few days. After Ash entered the hospital, he went up the elevator and down the hallway towards Gary's room, he saw Gary laying in the sun staring out the window; Ash quietly walked in.

"How are you doing, Gary?"

Gary didn't hear Ash enter the room, he felt a little startled, "Oh, Ash. You came to see me?"

Ash smiled, "Of course, I wanted to know how you were doing."

"I'm doing a lot better, the doctor's said I had a fractured rib, and that I'll need crutches for a month for my leg to heal. I'm just glad to be out of that forest, Ash.

"Ash nodded then looked around the room, "Wasn't James supposed to be in here with you too?"

"Only for a day, him and the rest of Team Rocket left earlier than expected. I didn't see them leave, though."

It was quiet for a few moments, Ash noticed that Gary _did_ look a lot better. Thought it had only been a few days after their trip, Ash was going to be meeting up with Brock and Misty at the hill of Pallet town tomorrow, he knew it was time to get back on his real journey of becoming a pokemon master.

"Hey, Gary?" Ash asked quietly.

Gary looked over with a questioned look, "I'm going to be leaving Pallet tomorrow to continue my journey."

Gary paused for a minute, then nodded slowly, he looked slightly disappointed but Gary knew Ash had to continue on.

Ash put his hand behind his head and hesitated, "Um…" he trailed off.

Gary tilted his head, "What?"

"I've been thinking since I've been home, and… since we've both seemed to have mended our ways, maybe… you could join Brock, Misty and I on our journey to Hoenn? Gary, we've always been traveling separately since we first left Pallet. I think we'd learn a lot from each other if we traveled together."

Ash's eyes pleaded for a yes, and since Gary had a small smile on his face, yes is the answer Ash thought he would be getting.

Gary looked out the window, then sighed and looked back at Ash, "I'm sorry, Ash. I can't go with you."Ash was speechless, "We both have our own destiny, and I don't think mine involves me traveling with you."

Ash was almost certain that the entire time he had been thinking about asking Gary to join him that the answer was going to be yes, but it wasn't; Ash was feeling extremely disappointed, Pikachu's ears drooped and Ash took a few steps back. He nodded, "I understand, Gary."

Ash was holding his head low so that his hat was covering his face, Gary didn't know anything else to say. "I'll be leaving tomorrow morning, so I guess this will be the last time I'll see you."

Gary nodded and kept his eye on Ash, Ash then walked out of the room, and before leaving completely he looked back at Gary, "See you around then, Gary."

Gary looked away and lifted his hand up into the air, Ash then left the room and walked down the long hallway with his hat covering half of his face.

Gary laid in his bed frustrated, and later that day demanded that he be released from the hospital; finally, in the evening Gary was transported to Professor Oak's where he remained resting on the living room couch. Professor Oak brought Gary in some tea,"So, Gary, Ash tells me he's leaving on his pokemon journey tomorrow. I thought you would have gone with them," the professor said handing the tea to his grandson.

"No, gramps. I'll be staying here to help you with your pokemon research.""What? Gary, you don't have to stay here and help me, I have plenty of help with Tracey and Delia stopping by. Not the mention all of the pokemon you and Ash send to me." The professor smiled.

"No, gramps. We both have our separate destiny's to fufill, and mine isn't with Ash. It's here doing pokemon research."

The professor put his teacup down, "Gary…"

~ The next morning ~

It was another early morning for Ash as he was all dressed, packed and ready to meet up with Misty and Brock. He felt excited to see them and tell them about his previous trip, but Ash couldn't but feel disappointed that Gary wasn't going to be there with them. Ash put his hat on his head, then headed downstairs to eat breakfast. After he and Pikachu finished their final meal at the Ketchum home, Delia hugged her son and Pikachu goodbye and watched him walk down the path toward the hill from her doorstep.

Delia and waved goodbye as Ash and Pikachu waved back, "Goodbye, honey!"

"Mime!"

Ash was happy to have such a loving mom, but he knew he was not finished working on his dream, and held his fists tight as he walked toward to where he would be meeting up with Brock and Misty.

After ten minutes of walking, Ash could see his old friends waving at him, "Ash! Hey, man!"

"Ash! Good to see you again! Are you ready?"

Ash ran up to Brock and Misty and greeted them, Pikachu jumped into Misty's arms and she petted the mouse pokemon.

"How have you guys been? Hope you're all rested." Ash said raising his fist into the air.

"More than you could probably think, Ash." Brock chuckled.

"So are you ready for the Hoenn region, Ash?"

"Pikachu and I are always ready!"

"Alright, then let's go!"

"Toge-prii!"

Brock and Misty began walking along the path, Ash turned around and took one last look at Pallet Town.

_Good luck, Gary._

Ash turned around knowing he wouldn't see Gary for most of his journey, but he had to continue on.

"Ash!"

A voice called out, "Did you guys hear that?" Misty asked turning around.

Ash put his hand over his eyes and looked down the hill, "Pika-pi!"

"Gary?"

Gary was hobbling up the hill on his crutches, he waved to Ash, and had his backpack on. Ash was still in shock from even seeing Gary, "Hey, are you going to say something or what?"

"Uh," Ash began. He snapped out of finally and ran toward him, they stopped and both looked at each other, "Gary, what are you doing here? I thought you said you weren't coming?"

"I.. I changed my mind. I was convinced that coming along is the better choice, I wanted to stay back and help gramps with his research, but I can help him and continue on my own journey traveling with you at the same time, Ash."

Ash was overjoyed, he couldn't help himself anymore and hugged Gary; Brock and Misty came down the hill just a little afterwards, Misty put her hand in front of her face when she saw Gary was in crutches, "Gary, what happened?"

Ash smiled, it's a long story, Misty. There will be plenty of time for that later, Gary is going to join us."

"Really? No way, Gary's never joined us before, he's been so full of himself every time we've come into contact with him." Brock stated.

Ash looked at his friends, "That's true, but everything has changed for the better now."

Gary smirked, "Maybe so, Ash. We may have mended our friendship, but that doesn't I'm gonna go easy on ya."

Ash blinked and looked behind him, Gary had a smug look across his face, "You better show me how good of a pokemon trainer you are, or I might have to bring back that so called cocky attitude of mine. Do you think you have what it takes, Ashy-boy?"

Ash's face went red, "What!? Gary, I'm better than you! I'll prove it you, let's have a battle. Come on, Pikachu!"

"Here they go again," Misty grumbled putting her hand over her face.

Gary flapped his arms in front of him, "There will be plenty of time for that later also. We've got to reach the Hoenn region first."

"Gary's right, Ash. We've got a long way to go before reaching the first town, we should probably get going." Brock said turning around.

Gary smiled and patted Ash on his back, "Let's go, Ash. This is just the beginning."

Gary walked ahead on his crutches, it was different to see Gary travel in his group, but Ash couldn't be happier, he ran up behind the others.

~An hour later~

"Look's like we've reached a crossroads," Brock said looking at his arrows were pointing in two different directions, Johto and Hoenn.

"Well, looks like we start here." Misty said walking ahead.

The group followed, but Gary stopped, "Did anyone hear that?" he said reaching for his poke ball belt.

Ash wasn't going to ask any questions and readied his poke balls on his belt, and at that moment a Seviper charged from the woods beside them and headed straight toward Ash. Ash stood still in shock, an Arbok appeared and took down the Seviper.

"Arbok, bite attack!"

The Arbok clamped down on the Seviper and it let out a loud hiss, it scurried away to the feet of it's trainer. It was a man dressed in all red, he returned his Seviper to it's poke ball; Ash's group turned and looked at Arbok. Jesse, Meowth and James appeared.

"Team Rocket!?" Brock shouted.

"Team Magma!"

The man group turned around again toward the Seviper trainer, "I'm a member of Team Magma, and you're entering Hoenn, our territory! This is a warning for all of you pokemon trainers, beware of Team Magma! You haven't seen the last of us!" The man said, running off into the woods.

"They're here to capture Pikachu, Ash!"

"No, I don't think so." Ash said staring at Team Rocket.

"We thought we'd return the favor," James replied.

"For old timesake though, after that Pikachu!" Jesse shouted.

Team Rocket charged at Ash's group, Ash smirked and rubbed his thumb against his nose, "Pikachu, thundershock!"

"Pi…ka…chuuu!"

There was a blast of smoke and Team Rocket was sent flying into the air toward the Hoenn region, "Looks like we're blasting off again!"

Misty shrugged her shoulders and sighed, "So typical," she said as she began walking again.

Brock followed behind, but Gary was still looking into the sunny sky, it was such a beautiful day, and neither he or Ash were cooped up into Eterna Forest anymore. Gary took a step forward but his crutch got wedged between a rock and he tripped forward, before he landed two arms grabbed hold and held him up. Gary looked up and was face to face with Ash, "Are you alright?"

Gary paused, "Yeah, yeah I'm fine. Thanks, Ash."

Ash helped his rival up and walked along side of Gary at his slow pace, the two then stepped into the Hoenn region, their new journey was just beginning. New trials and adventures awaited them, walking side by side they appeared as they did when they were younger walking down the streets of Pallet Town. Two rivals, two friends.

**Done! Thank you everyone for reading and reviewing, I hope you all enjoyed the story! I plan on starting up my next one soon, and I think it will be a Yugioh fanfic, this time involving Seto Kaiba. So stay tuned!**

~ Hunnybear22


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